OPEC quota policy should be reformed

Bijan Namdar Zanganeh who was speaking in a press conference on the occasion of National Day of Government on Tuesday, provided the latest developments in Iran’s oil and gas industry; “in the first quarter of the current year, Iran’s volume of exports has grown 15 per cent, while sanctions are still in place; however, we will not be overzealous in the prospects of removing sanctions,” he told reporters. “We have experienced sanctions even more difficult times than the war with Iraq; we won an unequal battle in the nuclear negotiations; all foreign companies should know that the conditions have been quite different in post-sanctions era when we are near self-sufficiency in different operational fields of oil and gas industry,” Namdar Zanganeh emphasized.

“Before sanctions removal, Iran’s more than 1 million barrel quota of oil export had been lost, and we are to return the lost barrels through a two-stage force majeure and mid-term plan; Iran will add 500,000 barrels of crude oil into the markets by the first day of removal of sanctions,” he told reporters, “which will be a shock to oil prices as well; however, we have plans to vaccinate the market so that no shocks would affect prices,” Zanganeh said.

“Countries’ leverage in OPEC is an effect of increase in their production and export quota; we would not resort to blandishment or getting the permissions from other countries for a return to markets; the ministry is no longer interested in cheap oil either,” told the minister to the press.

Zanganeh however admitted that the future of oil market was unpredictable; “in post-sanctions era, we will increase oil exports; in line with this, we are leading talks with Japan, South Korea, India, China, and EU countries to resume exports to these countries, and the concerns which stymied the industry are no longer on place,” he added.

On government’s plans to construct new refineries in the new era, Zanganeh told reports about negotiations with India; “the neighbors are in priority for gas exports; the operation of different phases of South Pars have been prioritized according to the order of receiving resources; with full operation of 12th phase, and partial operation of 15th, 16th, and 17th phases, about 120mn cubic meters of gas will be added to the total capacity,” he said.