OPEC member states should cut crude output to boost prices to a range of $70 to $80 a barrel, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar-Zanganeh said Monday, even as his staff talked up their plans to ramp up Iran’s production.
“No one is happy” with prices at current levels, Zanganeh told reporters in Tehran. “OPEC should decide to manage the market by reducing the level of production.”
But Zanganeh said he doesn’t expect the group to scale back output when its ministers meet in December. And he has long said Iran will boost its output.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) set its current monthly quota at 30 million barrels a day from the start of 2012. But it has exceeded that official production target for 16 consecutive months, the last 14 of which have seen a price slump.
More importantly, however, when the group set 30 million barrels as the quota for all 12 member states combined, it dropped its individual country quotas. Thus, there is no way to even pretend to enforce a production ceiling since no country can bust the quota unless it exceeded 30 million barrels on its own.
And Zanganeh didn’t offer any help in that regard. “We won’t seek permission from anyone for our production,” Zanganeh said. “We will bring our production back to the market, and the market will absorb it.”
Then, he claimed, “All of those OPEC members whom I speak with welcome this.”
Officials have said Iran will boost output by 500,000 barrels a day immediately after sanctions are lifted and add another 500,000 within six months.
