Crude oil was little changed after falling yesterday when ministers from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said they may approve today a 1- million-barrel increase in the group's daily output limit. Ministers back a plan to raise the quota by 500,000 barrels, and will consider allowing a second matching gain later, OPEC President Sheikh Ahmad Fahd al-Sabah said yesterday. Today's U.S. Energy Department's weekly stockpile report may show an increase in distillate supplies, which include heating oil and diesel. ``Weekly U.S. oil statistics can calm things down a bit when they start showing substantial distillate builds,'' said Deborah White, a commodities economist at Societe Generale SA. Crude oil for July traded at $55.22 a barrel, up 22 cents, in electronic after-hours trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 12:29 p.m. Singapore time. Yesterday, the contract fell 62 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $55 a barrel, the fifth decline in seven days. Prices today have risen 48 percent from a year ago. The two-step quota rise that OPEC will debate today is very similar to the proposal adopted at the group's March meeting in Isfahan, Iran, al-Sabah said. The first increase would be effective July 1 and the second would be triggered by sustained prices above $50 a barrel, he said yesterday. The quota for the 10 OPEC members restrained by self-imposed limits, all except Iraq, is 27.5 million barrels a day. ``The market is expecting the very same outcome'' from today's OPEC meeting, said Chris Mennis, owner of oil trader New Wave Energy, in Aptos, California. ``The inventory report is probably more important. We have to see if we can build some product stocks.''