Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh denounced the US call on Saudi Arabia to hike up its oil output as an insult to the sovereignty of members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, saying such political moves would cause instability in the oil market. OPEC has been basically founded to separate the oil […]
Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh denounced the US call on Saudi Arabia to hike up its oil output as an insult to the sovereignty of members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, saying such political moves would cause instability in the oil market.
OPEC has been basically founded to separate the oil market from politics and minimize the impact of political factors on prices, so that supply and demand would set the oil price, Zanganeh said in response to the US president’s announcement that Saudi Arabia has agreed to his request for a rise in the output in order to make up for any cut in Iran’s oil exports.
“Some political measures and instabilities cause concern in the oil market and raise prices,” the Iranian minister said, adding, “Trump’s insulting order for certain OPEC members (to boost production), which amounts to an insult to the national sovereignty of the organization’s independent member states, has raised concerns in the (oil) market.”
The US administration’s expectation that Saudi Arabia should increase oil output on the pretext that Washington is ensuring the kingdom’s security is both “an insult to the people and national sovereignty” of the OPEC member states and a factor destabilizing the oil market, Zanganeh deplored.
The comments came after US President Donald Trump said in a tweet, “Just spoke to King Salman of Saudi Arabia and explained to him that, because of the turmoil and disfunction in Iran and Venezuela, I am asking that Saudi Arabia increase oil production, maybe up to 2,000,000 barrels, to make up the difference…Prices to high! He has agreed!”
OPEC agreed in late June to raise oil production by around 1 million barrels per day (bpd) from July for the group and its allies.
