Iran to comply with Opec on output cuts

tehran — Iran will go along with whatever decision Opec makes at its meeting later this month on whether to extend oil production cuts beyond June, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said.

“All indications are that the members want a renewal of the deal and we will go along with what they agree upon,” Zanganeh said on Saturday on the sidelines of an energy trade show in Tehran.

Producers outside Opec that joined the oil pact will probably agree to keep the cuts for longer, he said.

Crude has surrendered all of its gains since the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed in November to cut output. Brent crude, the global benchmark, slumped to a five-month low of $46.64 a barrel in New York on Friday, bringing prices down 14 per cent for this year.

Zanganeh said he expects oil to trade at $55 a barrel, though he didn’t say for what period.

all indications are that the [Opec] members want a renewal of the deal and we will go along with what they agree upon Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, Iran oil minister

The Opec meets on May 25 in Vienna to discuss the output cuts. Brent ended the week at $49.10 a barrel. On November 30, when Opec clinched the deal to curtail oil production for the first time in eight years, oil closed at $50.47 a barrel.

Iran’s oil exports now stand at about 2.5 million barrels a day, Zanganeh said. In April, Zanganeh told the Islamic Republic News Agency that he expected Iran’s oil exports to average 2.4 million barrels a day for the Iranian calendar year that started March 21. The nation was allowed to boost production by 90,000 barrels a day to about 3.8 million barrels under the first six months of the Opec agreement.

Iran was the third biggest producer in Opec in April, after Saudi Arabia and Iraq, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.