Choking off demand in the importing countries has largely lost its allure for many OPEC producers.
That's because non-OPEC producers pumped more valuable light crude to counteract the effects of OPEC's cheating.
But Opec hawks Iran, Libya, and Algeria warned in a statement that market stability is a responsibility of non-Opec as well as Opec producers, implying they might oppose the production increases.
The tepid supply forecasts for non-OPEC oil producers in 2013 are not strong enough to represent any break in the fundamentals that would be unmanageable for OPEC to chip in and cover.
Outside of Opec, of which Russia is not a member, the country is the No. 2 after Canada of non-Opec oil producers.
After years of low oil prices in the 1990s the OPEC group of producers began the recent boom with plenty of spare capacity.
OPEC, the oil producers' cartel, gathered in Beirut this week under pressure from Saudi Arabia, its dominant force, to raise production quotas.
ECONOMIST: Markets fret about supplies from Saudi Arabia. Rightly so
Conditions in the global economy have changed dramatically since then, however, forcing oil producers' group Opec to cut output levels in an effort to stabilise prices.
Earlier, they had temporarily fallen back after the head of the oil producers' group Opec said he did not expect the turmoil in Egypt to affect the canal.
The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the oil-producers' cartel, estimates that SARS has reduced Asian oil demand by 300, 000 barrels per day.
OPEC, which is dominated by Middle Eastern producers, owns three-quarters of the world's proven reserves (see chart), it currently produces only 41% of the world's annual oil supply.
The big producers, along with some of their non-OPEC friends, need to sit down and thrash out production levels and pricing.
Members of Opec, made up of the world's major oil producers, have come under pressure to do something to stop the recent sharp rises in the cost of a barrel.
OPEC's moment of triumph could arrive sooner if it persuades producers such as Russia, Norway, and Mexico to continue to restrain their output.
OPEC, preferably led by Venezuela (the only western-hemisphere member of the oil producers' club), play a central role in Mr Chavez's ambitions.
But then few have such concentrated suppliers as platinum, palladium and nickel - and Opec has been aware of its special power to influence the markets ever since 1973, when producers quadrupled world oil prices almost overnight.
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