Iran Says Higher Global Oil Prices Essential

In a telephone conversation with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Monday, Rouhani commended the stance adopted by Caracas at an extraordinary meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Algeria in favor of maintaining Iran’s oil quota and raising its oil output to pre-sanctions levels.

“All must make efforts so that the committee of experts would take decisions to clear the way for increasing global oil price in the [OPEC] meeting in November,” the Iranian president said, adding that OPEC countries must hold “serious negotiations” with non-OPEC producers in order to increase and stabilize oil prices at international markets.

He also called for expert-level meetings to determine member countries’ oil export quotas.

OPEC members agreed during their extraordinary meeting in Algiers, Algeria, on Wednesday to limit production in an effort to raise the low crude prices. They decided to cut production by 750,000 barrels a day.

Iran, however, has been exempted from the decision because of its exceptional situation of having been under sanctions for a number of years.

Since the removal of nuclear-related sanctions targeting its oil industry in February, Iran – which is OPEC’s third largest producer after Saudi Arabia and Iraq – has been boosting production in order to reach previous levels and has rejected calls on the country to freeze production as unfair.

Iran, whose production has reached 3.6 million barrels per day, insists on its right to increase its crude output to around 4.1-4.2 million barrels per day.

OPEC is yet to decide on how much each country should produce during its next meeting in Vienna in November.

Non-OPEC producers including Russia will also be invited to join the deal.

 

Common Stance of Iran, Venezuela at OPEC

The Venezuelan president, for his part, said Tehran and Caracas have common and coordinated stances on regional and international developments, particularly on OPEC-related issues.

Maduro stressed the importance of increasing the oil prices and expressed hope that the outcome of the Algeria meeting would help stabilize the oil market.

He also called for the expansion of relations with Iran and implementation of new projects.