Iran to attend key oil meeting in Algeria

Shana news agency, affiliated to Iran’s Ministry of Petroleum, said in a report that Zangeneh will deliver a speech in the first session of the Forum which will continue until 28 September.

What makes the event important is an extraordinary meeting between producers of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC producers to discuss the latest market situation on the sidelines of the IEF.

The key focus of the meeting will be a proposal by Saudi Arabia for producers to keep their oil output at January levels – what Riyadh believes will help stabilize the prices in markets.

Iran has so far rejected the call to freeze its output as unfair and emphasized that it will go ahead with its plans to increase its oil production.

Nevertheless, it had made it clear that it is ready to join the plan after its output reaches 4 barrels per day.

The country had been under multiple years of sanctions that limited its oil exports to 1 million barrels per day and also barred foreign investments in its oil industry.

The sanctions were lifted in January after a nuclear deal that Iran had reached with the so-called P5+1 group of countries – the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany – came into effect.

Reuters reported on Friday that Saudi Arabia has informed Tehran that it is ready to reduce its oil output provided that Iran agrees to cap its own output at its current level of 3.6 million mb/d over the remaining months to the end of 2016.

Iran is yet to formally react to the offer.