Iranian President Urges Closer Cooperation among OPEC Members

In a telephone conversation with his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolas Maduro, on Thursday evening, President Rouhani hailed the recent deals reached between OPEC members in Algeria and Austria and said in the first step, the countries should work together to secure implementation of the deals in the first half of next year.

“Close cooperation among OPEC and non-OPEC countries is key to stabilize and raise oil prices,” he said.

The Iranian president further pointed to the position of Latin American countries in the Islamic Republic‘s foreign policy and said the Islamic Republic has always attached great importance to its relations and cooperation with these countries, including Venezuela.

Maduro, for his part, emphasized that the agreement reached among OPEC members last month in Vienna was a victory for all of the countries and its achievements will be revealed in coming months.

The OPEC members agreed in November to reduce output by around 1.2 million bpd from January 2017, a move that bolstered crude prices.

Iran was exempted from the cut, being allowed to boost production slightly from its October level – a victory for Tehran, which has long argued it needs to regain market share lost under Western sanctions, according to Reuters.