DUBAI: Iran has no plans to call for an emergency Opec meeting to discuss the falling price of oil but was talking to some members of the producer club about stemming the decline, the country’s oil minister said.
In remarks posted on the oil ministry’s website SHANA, Bijan Namdar Zanganeh called for increased cooperation between members of Opec. “Iran has no plan (to hold an emergency Opec meeting) and is currently in consultations with other Opec member states in a bid to prevent the sharp fall in the oil price, but these consultations have yet to bear fruit,” he said.
Opec oil exporters, led by Saudi Arabia, chose in November to maintain oil output despite the global glut and calls from some of the cartel’s members - including Iran and Venezuela - to cut production. A diplomatic push by Venezuela and Iran for an Opec oil output cut has failed to soften the refusal of the group’s Gulf members to do so for now, delegates said last week. The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries accounts for a third of global oil output.
Zanganeh said Iran had no plans to cut is oil production and added Iran’s budget should be based on oil at $72 per barrel, but Iran could withstand lower oil prices. “Even if the oil price goes down to $25 a barrel, the oil industry will not be threatened,” the Fars news agency quoted him as saying. Reuters
