Speaking to reporters upon his arrival to Vienna, Bloomberg quoted Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, the Iranian oil minister, as saying that he doesn’t believe the OPEC meeting on Friday would end with an agreement.
Under pressure from US President Trump, Saudi Arabia is moving to increase oil production in the second half of the year. Russia is also aiming for an even larger production boost of 1.5 million barrels a day.
Meanwhile, Zanganeh said “there’s no need” for a hike in Iran's oil production.
Iran’s representative to OPEC, Kazempour Ardebili, also told Bloomberg that the three bloc members, including Iran, Venezuela and Iraq, will veto Saudi Arabia’s proposal to increase oil production.
“OPEC is an independent organization not an organization to receive instruction from President Trump,” Zanganeh said. “OPEC is not part of the Department of Energy of the United States.”
Before leaving Tehran for Vienna, the Iranian oil minister stressed that tensions in the oil market are not caused by supply and demand imbalance but by political issues.
Since OPEC takes its decision by unanimity, Saudi Arabia will have to rally support from other countries to bypass Iran’s veto; or it could act unilaterally in boosting its oil output, without OPEC consensus.
“If the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Russia want to increase production, this requires unanimity. If the two want to act alone, that’s a breach of the cooperation agreement,” Kazempour Ardebili told Bloomberg on Sunday.
Zanganeh will take part in the 7th International OPEC Seminar on June 20 and 21 and next, he will attend the 174th OPEC Meeting on June 22 held in Vienna, Austria.
MS