Iran denies claims of violating OPEC oil output quotas

Iran’s OPEC governor Mohammad-Ali Khatibi on Sunday denied the claims that Iran has been producing crude oil beyond its specified oil output quotas over the past seven months, the official IRNA news agency reported.

“The figures so announced are based on the International Energy Agency statistics. The OPEC’s official oil production statistics are announced at the end of each month and the organization is well informed of its members output level,” Khatibi was quoted as saying.

Elaborating on the improvement of oil prices, he said that “had OPEC not lowered its production, oil prices would have not reached the current levels. This means that if all the OPEC members had produced oil over capacity, there would not have been an increase in the prices.”

OPEC had, in its Algeria meeting in December 2008, agreed on an overall “daily cut of 4,200,000 barrels per day. Naturally, Iran too decreased its production. Had such a decrease not taken place, the oil prices would have dropped to 20 dollars per barrel,” the report quoted him as saying. “The decrease in oil production had been based on OPEC decisions and the cut has been observed by all the OPEC members,” he added.

On Tuesday Iran’s OPEC governor said that though there is certain positive signs of economic recovery in the world, there is no need for OPEC to increase its production at present, the official IRNA news agency reported.

OPEC seeks a balance in the oil market, a situation which now prevails. The current demand for OPEC oil stands at some 29 million barrels per day (bpd) and accordingly its production is between 28.8 and 28.9 million bpd, he said.

Recently, OPEC President and Oil Minister of Angola Jose Botelho de Vasconcelos said that if the excessively rapid increase in oil prices posed a threat to world economic recovery, OPEC would consider increasing the production quota at the ministry meeting in December.

Tags:  Iran, oil output, OPEC