Eight key members of the OPEC alliance said Sunday they have agreed to again boost oil production, in a strategy analysts saw as a bid to gain a bigger market share of crude sales.

Oil ministers in the V8 grouping -- comprising Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria and Oman -- decided to increase production by 137,000 barrels a day (bpd) from next month, they said in a statement.

Those countries had already increased production by 2.2 million bpd in recent months.

In their statement issued after an online meeting on Sunday, they said that the new incoming cycle could see up to an extra 1.65 million bpd eventually coming onto the market.

"OPEC caught the market off guard today........

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