The increase in Saudi Arabia’s oil production in response to a request by President Bush amounts to only a “token” rise in output, according to an oil expert quoted in Bloomberg.

“It’s just a token increase but it shows that the Saudis realize just how important it is for the president to not come back empty handed,” said Peter Beutel, president of Cameron Hanover Inc. in New Canaan, Connecticut. “This is about a lot more than oil, the special relationship between the countries is at stake.”

Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest exporter of the black goo, said it would raise output by 300,000 barrels a day to 9.45 million barrels a day in June, following a meeting between Bush and Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah.

However, according to an OPEC report, Saudi Arabia’s April oil production was 9.02 million barrels a day, down 37,000 barrels a day from a month earlier, while Nigeria’s output fell by 251,000 barrels a day. This means the all the Saudi supply increase will offset declines last month.

“It’s almost funny to watch the reactions of politicians everywhere,” says Manraaj Singh in Profit Watch. “Someone must have forgotten to tell them that OPEC is a cartel. Its job is to make its members rich, not provide cheap oil to faltering Western economies.”And it must be doing something right… because the petrodollars are really beginning to pile up.”

Read on here find out why Arab oil wealth is set to dwarf the US economy.