The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will increase crude loadings by the smallest amount since October as demand for winter fuels passes its peak, according to tanker-tracker Oil Movements.

Shipments will rise 0.3 percent to 23.46 million barrels a day in the four weeks to Jan. 1 from 23.39 million barrels in the period to Dec. 4, Oil Movements said today in a report. That’s the smallest gain since Oct. 2. The data exclude Ecuador and Angola.

“We’ve certainly past the peak of the winter,” said Roy Mason, Oil Movements’ founder, in a telephone interview from Halifax, England. “In terms of products other than for distillates in Europe, stocks are still quite high. The tanker market will be quiet until mid-January.”

Shipments from Middle Eastern producers, including those from non-OPEC members Oman and Yemen, will rise 0.4 percent to 17.36 million barrels a day, from 17.29 million in the four weeks to Dec. 4, data from Oil Movements show.

OPEC maintained its current oil production quota of 24.845 million barrels a day at a meeting on Dec. 11 in Quito, Ecuador, as member nations consider the global recovery strong enough to withstand price gains. The organization will meet next in June.

A total of 472.64 million barrels of crude will be on board tankers in the month to Jan. 1, up 0.7 percent on the Dec. 4 figure of 469.24 million barrels, according to Oil Movements.

Oil Movements calculates shipments by keeping a tally of tanker-rental agreements. Its figures exclude crude held on board ships used as floating storage.

OPEC’s members are Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. Iraq is exempt from the quota system.