Iran says will resist curbs on oil output as part of global pact
Source: Reuters
Wed Feb 17, 2016 7:53am EST
Iran says will resist curbs on oil output as part of global pact
ANKARA/DUBAI | BY PARISA HAFEZI AND RANIA EL GAMAL
Iran said on Wednesday it would resist any plan to restrain its oil output as fellow OPEC ministers tried to persuade the country to join the first global oil pact in 15 years.
Talks in Tehran between Iranian oil minister Bijan Zanganeh and his counterparts from Iraq, Qatar and Venezuela began on Wednesday. Iran is the major obstacle to the first joint OPEC and non-OPEC deal since 2001, having pledged to increase output sharply to regain market share lost during years of sanctions.
The meeting in the Iranian capital followed a deal reached on Tuesday by OPEC power Saudi Arabia and non-OPEC Russia, the world's top two producers and exporters, to freeze production at January levels if other big oil nations agree to join.
OPEC Gulf producers - Qatar, Kuwait and the UAE - as well as Venezuela said they would join the pact, aimed at tackling a growing oversupply and helping prices recover from their lowest in over a decade.
"Asking Iran to freeze its oil production level is illogical ... when Iran was under sanctions, some countries raised their output and they caused the drop in oil prices." Iran's OPEC envoy, Mehdi Asali, was quoted as saying by the Shargh daily newspaper on Wednesday.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-opec-oil-iran-idUSKCN0VQ17P
