Reuters: Iran’s caretaker oil minister said on Saturday that OPEC was opposed to any increase in output ceilings in the absence of “well-studied justifications”.
TEHRAN, July 9 (Reuters) – Iran’s caretaker oil minister said on Saturday that OPEC was opposed to any increase in output ceilings in the absence of “well-studied justifications”.
“Iran’s policy as head of OPEC is to maintain the production ceiling of this organisation,” Mohammad Aliabadi was quoted as saying by the semi-official Mehr news agency.
“It is an issue which a majority of OPEC members agree with.” Iran holds the rotating OPEC presidency.
Iran was a leading opponent of Saudi Arabia’s U.S.-backed push for oil exporter group OPEC to agree to a coordinated increase in production at its last meeting on June 8.
Having failed to get Iran, Venezuela and Algeria to agree to an official OPEC increase, the world’s biggest crude exporter said it would up production and sell as much oil as customers around the world wanted.
Iran has accused Saudi Arabia of seeking to grab market share from other OPEC members.
(Reporting by Ramin Mostafavi; Writing by Robin Pomeroy, editing by Miral Fahmy)
