Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 14
By Aygun Badalova - Trend:
Iran’s position regarding oil production freeze agreement, that will be a subject of discussions at the OPEC informal meeting in Algiers, remains unchanged, the International Oil Daily (IOD) reported referring a representative of Iran's Oil Ministry.
Iran's representative said the Islamic Republic would need to reach the pre-sanctions outpul level of some 4 million barrels a day (mbpd) before joining any potential agreement.
The informal OPEC meeting is expected in late September in Algeria. It is expected that the talks on oil production freeze will be held between OPEC and non-OPEC countries.
The meeting will be held at the fringe of the International Energy Forum in Algiers from 26-28 September.
Gulf Opec delegate told IOD that the "preferred option" would be to freeze production but that this wouldn't happen unless all OPEC and major non-OPEC countries took part". The delegate added that the production levels countries would freeze at would still need to be determined.
A second OPEC delegate said that a deal without Iran would be "very difficult" to achieve, unless "politicians" decide to support the idea, which at the moment is "unlikely".
Iran has increased the oil output by 22,000 barrels per day to 3.653 million barrels per day (mb/d) in August, month-to-month, according to OPEC’s latest report.
Iran’s crude oil output increased from 2.874 mb/d in 4Q2015, before removal of sanctions, to the mentioned volume.
OPEC’s total crude oil output decreased by 23,100 b/d to 33.237 mb/d in August, compared to July.
