No Stopping Oil Prices

"Even though the Saudis are too late, they did all the right things," Flynn said.

Jan Stuart, vice president of energy research at Fimat USA, agreed with Flynn and said the increase eventually will have a calming effect on the market, but not right away. "What the Saudis said is really quite significant, but there is some time to go between what they want to do and when it becomes meaningful in the market," he said.

At the weekend meeting, Saudi Arabia again urged its fellow OPEC members to increase production to prevent high prices from hurting global economic growth, but the cartel deferred any decision until its regularly scheduled meeting in Beirut on June 3.

The world's biggest oil exporter, Saudi Arabia, which first said it would increase production last Friday, now wants OPEC to increase production by 2 million barrels a day, having previously called for a 1.5 million-barrel-a-day increase.

OPEC said its members produced about 25.5 million barrels a day in April, almost 10% over the output official ceiling of 23.5 million barrels. There's considerable debate among analysts about whether many members have the capacity to boost production swiftly and produce more on a sustainable basis.

Flynn said non-OPEC producers such as Russia, Norway and Mexico have increased production by 1.17 million barrels a day from this time last year, with Russia providing the biggest boost. Non-OPEC producers now pump 50.1 million barrels a day, according to the International Energy Agency.

"Non-OPEC increases have really saved the world on oil prices," Flynn said. "We're very lucky we've seen those increases. Every extra barrel Russia produced went right to China."

Oil prices have repeatedly closed at record highs on the Nymex and came close to touching $42 a barrel. Traders are worried about supply because of recent attacks on oil-producing facilities in the Middle East ahead of the key summer driving season.