Iran: Saudi among OPEC quota ‘violators’

TEHRAN — Sanctionshit Iran yesterday blasted fellow OPEC members Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates as oil quota “violators”, accusing them of depressing global crude prices by over-pumping.

Iran’s OPEC representative, Mohammad Ali Khatibi, said Tehran had officially protested to the cartel that Saudi Arabia was “saturating the market” under pressure from the United States and the European Union, according to the official IRNA news agency.

“It is not right that two or three countries compensate for a country that is being sanctioned. OPEC members should not work against each other,” Khatibi was quoted as saying.

Iran is the second-biggest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries after Saudi Arabia.

It has repeatedly lashed out at Saudi Arabia, a US ally, for opening oil spigots to make up for a shortfall in the market resulting from a cut in Iranian crude sales because of Western sanctions.

In the first quarter, Saudi output swelled by 250,000 barrels per day to 9.9 million bpd from a year earlier, according to OPEC estimates.

At the same time, OPEC said Iranian production dropped by 300,000 bpd to 3.2 million bpd, its lowest level in 20 years. Iran disputes that, saying its output has increased to 3.8 million bpd.