OPEC members are ready to establish firmer grip on market

EghtesadOnline: As the members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) prepare for a meeting in Vienna on November 30, a positive atmosphere prevails, former Iranian representative to OPEC Mohammad Ali Khatibi said.

News ID: ۷۷۱۸۱۰

30 November 2016

The OPEC members are ready to decide and establish a firmer grip on the market, Khatibi told Trend November 28.

Anticipating the meeting, trading turned choppy after prices tumbled more than 3 percent on November 25 as doubts grew over whether the OPEC would reach agreement to help curb a global supply overhang that has more than halved prices since 2014, ILNA reported.

Khatibi said that if non-members join OPEC members in their decision, a firmer ground will be made to manage the market.

On October 27, Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said the oil market would balance itself in 2017 even if producers did not intervene, and that keeping output at current levels could therefore be justified.

A week earlier, Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said hopes were high that the members would reach some agreement in Vienna.

Iran has been shunning calls to join a freeze to output plan, citing long-lasting deprivation of its market under sanctions that were lifted only in January.

Iran’s crude export under sanctions stood at 1 mbpd, but soared back to its pre-sanctions level of 2.5 mbpd a few months after sanctions were lifted.