An announced increase in output by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries failed to calm market concerns about the ability of producers to meet strong winter demand in the final quarter of the year, analysts said.

Light, sweet crude for October delivery added 13 cents to $78.36 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by midmorning in Singapore.

The contract on Tuesday rose 74 cents to settle at $78.23 a barrel -- 2 cents higher than the previous closing record, set July 31.

OPEC announced its decision at a meeting Tuesday to boost output 500,000 barrels a day starting Nov. 1. Investors had already priced in OPEC's increase, and many were looking for a larger production boost, analysts said.

"Half a million barrels a day is not nothing; the question on the market's mind is, 'Is it enough?'" said Tobin Gorey, a commodities strategist with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney.

"There's a view that final quarter demand will be quite strong," Gorey said. "In the end it's going to come down to how cold the Northern winter is."

OPEC, which produces about 40 percent of the world's oil, had long been expected to hold production levels steady at the meeting. But rumors started circulating Monday that Saudi Arabia was campaigning to boost production.

Many analysts think the Saudis are worried high oil prices will crimp demand for crude, which could hurt OPEC nations in the long run.

Many OPEC countries already produce more oil than their quotas. But Omar Farouk Ibrahim, spokesman for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, said the announced increase would be based on the group's current production, not quotas -- meaning the 12-nation cartel will be adding actual oil to the market.

Meanwhile, traders were also eyeing the release later Wednesday of U.S. government data on petroleum inventories. Analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires, on average, expect the report from the U.S. Energy Department's Energy Information Administration to say crude oil inventories fell 2.7 million barrels in the week ended Sept. 7.

Gasoline inventories likely fell 500,000 barrels last week, while refinery utilization fell 0.1 percentage points to 92 percent of capacity, the survey showed. Inventories of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, rose 1.4 million barrels, the analysts predicted, on average.

Traders were also awaiting a report Wednesday from the International Energy Agency projecting oil demand for the fourth quarter.

October Brent crude was unchanged at $76.38 a barrel on the ICE futures in London.

Heating oil futures added 0.12 cent to $2.1839 a gallon, while gasoline prices were flat at $1.9811 a gallon. Natural gas futures gained 1.6 cents to $5.95 per 1,000 cubic feet.