OIL’S inexorable price rise appears finally to be peaking as producers prepare to release more supply onto thirsty markets. Highs above $30 a barrel this week should relent to a $22,59 full-year average for world benchmark Brent, according to a Reuters poll of 18 analysts and consultants. The 10 Opec members whose 4,3-million barrels per day (bpd) of supply curbs expire on March 31 were 1,4-million bpd above formal quotas last month. Market watchers fear that any Opec supply rise might do little more than legitimise that cheating. ”The market needs at least one million barrels per day (bpd) of net new supply,” said Irene King of JP Morgan in New York. ”If we only get that on paper then we are truly in trouble.”