BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 3
By Elnur Baghishov - Trend:
Coronavirus 2019-nCoV, which has been spreading from China, has resulted in a decrease in oil demand, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh told reporters.
“A number of plants stopped to operate in China as a result of the epidemic, and oil consumption has decreased in this country,” Zangeneh added, Trend reports referring to Shana.
“The decline in demand affects oil prices,” Zangeneh said. "The efforts must be made to create a balance in the oil market."
The Iranian minister held the talks with OPEC President, Algeria's Minister of Energy Mohamed Arkab in relation with upcoming extraordinary meeting of OPEC member-states.
Zangeneh said that if the extraordinary meeting is held before March 4-5, all members must agree to reduce oil production.
OPEC member and non-member states agreed to reduce the volume of oil put up for sale by 1.7 million barrels at the 177th meeting in Vienna in early December 2019.
Thus, OPEC member-states shall reduce oil production by 372,000 barrels per day while non-member-states by 131,000 barrels per day. Iran, Libya and Venezuela are exempt from cutting output.
