Iran Urges Big OPEC Oil Output Cut As Soon As Iraq Crisis Over

www.bakutoday.net OPEC should cut its output by three to four million barrels per day as soon as the Iraq crisis is over, the oil cartel's second biggest producer Iran said Monday. 18/02/2003 08:19 "After the end of the Iraq crisis, OPEC will have to reduce its production by three to four million bpd" to avoid a collapse in prices, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh told the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB). "If an attack on Iraq doesn't last long, we will see a major fall in prices," Zangeneh said.

He said there were still a number of uncertainties about the oil market in the future, but the next Iranian year, beginning March 21, "will be the year of output cuts for Iran", Zangeneh predicted.

"If the United States succeeds in getting installed in Iraq, nobody can predict when Iraqi production will return to its normal status", Zangeneh warned, pointing out that "nobody knows" if Iraqi oil wells would be damaged. He asserted that the present hike in oil prices, which hit their highest level in more than two years Friday amid uncertainty over Iraq, is mainly due to "political matters and not economic".

Iran's output quota, within the OPEC oil cartel, currently stands at 3.18 million bpd, but actual production is closer to 3.6 million bpd.

OPEC oil production rose 2.2 percent to 25.663 million barrels per day (bpd) in January from December despite turmoil in strike-hit Venezuela, the Middle East Economic Survey (MEES) reported in its latest issue.

Source: Tehran Times