TEHRAN: Opec should make room for increased Iranian crude production within its ceiling of 30 million barrels a day, the nation’s oil minister said, adding the group will probably leave that limit unchanged when it meets next month.
Iran has asked Opec to accommodate its return to previous production levels when international sanctions are lifted, Bijan Namdar Zanganeh told reporters in Tehran. Iran plans to add one million barrels a day within five to six months of the curbs being removed and that increase should be within Opec’s production ceiling, Amir Hossein Zamaninia, deputy minister for commerce & international affairs, said in Tehran on Saturday.
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Brent crude tumbled more than 60 per cent since the middle of last year as Opec followed Saudi Arabia’s strategy of defending its share of the global market against competitors such as US shale producers. The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which accounts for about 40 per cent of global supply, has been pumping above its target level for 17 months. It is scheduled to meet on December 4 to discuss the ceiling.
“I don’t expect to receive any new agreement” at the Opec meeting, Zanganeh said. “Opec is producing more than its approved ceiling and I asked them to reduce production and to respect the ceiling, but it doesn’t mean we won’t produce more because it is our right to return to the market.”
Iran was Opec’s second-largest producer before sanctions over its nuclear programme were tightened in 2012. The nation, which reached an agreement with world powers in July over the trade restrictions, is currently the group’s fifth-largest supplier, pumping 2.7 million barrels a day last month, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“I sent a letter to Opec to consider our return to the market and to manage it,” Zanganeh said. “We don’t need to receive any permission from any organisation for our return to the previous level of production. It is a sovereign right.”
