OPEC’s 175th Meeting was influenced by the US, he told a televised interview on Wednesday evening. “The US acted naively during the meeting.”
“OPEC is not part of the US Department of Energy,” he said.
Zanganeh said that according to secondary sources, Iran's oil production from May to October fell, "which is not approved by Iran".
“If Iran was not exempted from the OPEC decision, its share in the market would drop by about 600,000 barrels per day,” he said.
“OPEC resolution states that the Secretary-General and OPEC's President would allow countries that are subject to certain sanctions to be exempted from production cuts,” he added.
“There are threats to OPEC from outside the organization, including NOPEC,” Zangeneh said, adding that "the volatility of the oil market is already psychological, and no production cuts have been on the market so far.”
Noting that "Brent prices rose to $61.48 after OPEC's decision," the veteran minister said nobody could predict the oil market, but the oil price is observing an upward trend.
South Pars Gas Field
Referring to the development project of the giant South Pars Gas Field’s Phase 11 in the Persian Gulf, Zanganeh said, China’s CNPC is supposed to replace Total. “If the Chinese company fails to act accordingly, it will be treated based on the contract,” he noted.
"We needed state-of-the-art technologies to enhance production rate in South Pars gas field."
Regarding South Pars, "we have developed 21 phases out of 24 phases and three remaining phases will go on stream by March 2019."
Referring to the US sanctions on Iran’s oil industry, the senior official said he would tap all the potentialities available in the country to counter the impact of “this unequal war”.
“I'm working with a number of colleagues to break the sanctions around the clock,” Zanganeh said.
“I cannot say what we are doing because it would be taken advantage of by Washington and they would try to block any solution we find.”
MNA/SHANA
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