Brent crude futures were down 6 cents at $49.61 per barrel by 1339 GMT, having recovered from a session low at $49.12.
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Iran has been ramping up production since a year ago after the western countries chose to remove sanctions against the republic.
US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $46.73 a barrel, down 4 cents, after dropping 2.8 percent on Wednesday.
Iranian oil minister Bijan Zanganeh confirmed Thursday that he will attend the informal OPEC meeting in Algeria joining non-member Russian Federation, the ministry said.
Other Opec nations are reportedly also producing at close to capacity.
Zanganeh said Iran had no role in instability of the oil market, as the crisis happened when Tehran’s exports were less than 1 million bpd.
Oil prices tumbled in Asia Monday on a strong USA dollar and after key Opec producers downplayed the prospects of limiting output at a meeting next month.
Iranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zanganeh on Friday said his country wanted its pre-sanctions share of the crude market, in comments that suggested Tehran might not be on board with efforts in the OPEC cartel to agree on an output cap together with Russian Federation.
Oil prices tumbled on Wednesday (Aug 24), with USA crude falling about 3 per cent, after an unexpectedly large inventory build in the world’s biggest oil consumer renewed worries about oversupply.
Saudi Arabia rejected an earlier attempt by some in the Opec to freeze output at an April meeting in Doha.
Iraq, which is Opec’s second-largest producer, trailing Saudi Arabia, depends on oil sales for 95 per cent of its public spending and appears set to continue boosting production, which now stands at around 4.6 million barrels per day.
Oil production has risen from 2.7 million bpd to 3.85 million bpd in that time, close to the level before worldwide sanctions were imposed in 2012.
“There’s a market-share battle going on mainly among the Middle East producers and Russia”, Olivier Jakob, managing director of Petromatrix, said by phone from Zug, Switzerland.
The latest rally in crude futures is likely overdone, as there has been no material change in the market’s fundamental picture.
Iran is Opec’s third-biggest producer and is seeking to boost output to levels it had before global sanctions on its oil industry were tightened in 2012.
“I’m not overly optimistic about an oil freeze being agreed”, Allman-Ward said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Dubai on Sunday.
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Oil prices slipped on Thursday as the market focused on oversupply and fading hopes of a production freeze.
