Now, he added, how can those same countries expect Iran to be cooperative and to pay the price. That’s down only 4% from the record high production reached in April, and still slightly ahead of year-ago production levels.
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Oil prices rose on Wednesday as efforts led by Russian Federation and Saudi Arabia to broker a deal to freeze production levels and ease a global glut turned to Iran, which signalled a tough line.
“These countries increased their production by four million barrels when Iran was under sanctions”, Mr Asali was quoted as saying by the Shargh daily.
Yesterday’s deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia was the first between OPEC and non-OPEC countries in 15 years and is the first coordinated response to the deepening crisis for producing countries.
“Any agreement will still be contingent on Iran being able to increase market share or increase production from current levels”, said Harry Tchilinguirian, head of commodity markets strategy at BNP Paribas SA in London.
The comments came ahead of a meeting in Tehran of oil ministers from Iran, Iraq and Venezuela to discuss a proposal to freeze production in order to battle a drop in oil prices. While the deal hinges on the cooperation of Iran, Zanganeh didn’t say whether Tehran would deviate from plans to restore exports after global sanctions were removed last month.
Following a meeting with OPEC ministers, the Iranian oil minister Bijan Zanganeh told the state news agency Shana, cited by various media outlets including The Financial Times, that “Iran backs any measures which help stabilise the market and improve the price of crude oil”.
Traded volume in USA crude futures was just above 500 million barrels, lower than the past three sessions, Reuters data showed, despite the price gains and activity prior to options expiry.
Prior to 2012, Iran exported close to 2.5 million barrels of oil per day.
OPEC members are holding talks in Iran Wednesday to try to convince the nation to join a pact with Saudi Arabia, Russia, Venezuela and Qatar to limit production to January’s level.
Meanwhile, Iran’s representative to OPEC said earlier in the day that Tehran would not support the reduction of oil output proposed by other countries.
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Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi said the January production levels are “adequate”, but that the agreement reached in Doha is only good if other large producers sign on as well.
