Reuters: OPEC does not need to raise oil output further, despite a rise in oil prices to record highs, the oil minister for Iran, the exporter group’s second-largest producer, said on Wednesday. TEHRAN, Sept 26 (Reuters) – OPEC does not need to raise oil output further, despite a rise in oil prices to record highs, the oil minister for Iran, the exporter group’s second-largest producer, said on Wednesday.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed on Sept. 11 to boost output by 500,000 barrels per day from Nov. 1 but oil prices have continued to rise. Crude hit a record near $84 a barrel last week.
“OPEC will review the market, but I do not think we will have any further increase,” Caretaker Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari said at a news conference.
“The market sets the price, we are after a fair price.”
The comments follow similar remarks on Monday from Nigeria’s oil minister, Odein Ajumogobia, who said there was no need for OPEC to raise crude oil output right now.
Nozari also said that Iran was not facing problems paying for oil and gas ventures despite U.S. sanctions on the Islamic Republic, which is locked in a row with Washington over Tehran’s nuclear work.
“Regarding financing of our projects, we are facing no problems,” he said.
The minister said Iran would carry out a multibillion dollar gas project without Total if the French oil major bows to political pressure to stay away from the project.
But, he said, companies put commercial interests first and those were likely to prevail over other concerns in the long term.
“Iran is an attractive country and companies give preference to their interests over political issues,” the minister said.
