Oil prices were steady in Asian trade after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) raised its production ceiling by 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) as expected, dealers said. New York's main contract, light sweet crude for July delivery was quoted at 55.57 usd a barrel, unchanged from its close in New York overnight. "Nothing really has changed in the market," said Victor Shum, an analyst with US energy consultancy Purvin and Gertz in Singapore. "What OPEC decided to do had already been expected in the market." At its meeting in Vienna on Wednesday, OPEC's 11 members agreed to raise its production ceiling by 500,000 bpd on July 1 and said it might repeat the move by September. The decision was motivated by high prices and forecasts of "strong global demand during the remainder of the year," the cartel said in a communique. OPEC members also opted to give the cartel president, Sheikh Ahmed Fahd al-Sabah, a mandate to increase the quota again before September if he determines that such a move is what the market needs. "OPEC has decided to raise its production quota by 500,000 bpd, to 28 mln bpd, on July 1 with the option of a second raise of 500,000 bpd before September, according to the discretion of the president," an OPEC spokesman said. Separately, the latest US stockpile data, especially on distillates -- heating oil and diesel -- helped ease market fears of a supply shortage in the run-up to the northern hemisphere winter later this year, dealers said. "Over the past few days the concerns in the market was about distillates supply, that there may not be enough heating oil in the fourth quarter of this year but now the report shows the supply is up," Shum said. The US Department of Energy also said in its report that gasoline reserves fell 900,000 barrels to 215.7 mln while crude oil reserves fell 1.8 mln barrels to 339 mln in the week ending June 10.