New Delhi, July 5 -- OPEC has a preliminary agreement for another modest oil quota increase in August, delegates said, raising the prospect of more supply eventually hitting the market again if a US-Iran peace pact can stick.

If ratified at a video conference on Sunday, seven major nations led by Saudi Arabia and Russia will add 188,000 barrels a day to their output target, the delegates said. It would be in keeping with the group's plan to finish reversing output curbs made a few years ago, and mean that, since the war began, they've added 940,000 barrels a day to quotas - equivalent to almost 1% of global demand.

Those increases have so far been theoretical because the war blocked the Strait of Hormuz and stopped Persian Gulf members ...