OPEC output hike would not affect prices: Iran

AFP: Major crude oil producer Iran said on Saturday that any output hike by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries as requested by the United States would not affect skyrocketing prices.

TEHRAN (AFP) — Major crude oil producer Iran said on Saturday that any output hike by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries as requested by the United States would not affect skyrocketing prices.

"This would only increase inventories," Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari told reporters in reaction to US President George W. Bush pressing OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia to raise oil output.

"The market is oversupplied and increasing production will not affect prices," the oil minister said when asked whether an OPEC output hike would lower prices which hit nearly 128 dollars per barrel on Friday.

Saudi Arabia said global supply was balanced with demand but revealed that it had hiked production by 300,000 barrels per day this month.

Iran is OPEC's number two and the world's fourth largest oil exporter.

When prices reached 115 dollars a barrel last month Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said oil was priced too low and that the commodity "should find its real value."