Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh left Tehran early Tuesday, November 13 to attend this week's meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) at which members are expected to announce an output cut.
Ministry sources told AFP that Zangeneh would not travel to Moscow on his way to Vienna, as had been announced on Monday. OPEC members are set to discuss cutting output by at least one million barrels a day (bpd) in a bid to push prices back up to $25 a barrel, ministry sources said.
Late last month, Zangeneh said it was "important for the future decisions of OPEC that the approach taken by participants at the meeting (in November) on offer and demand are concurrent." He also called on OPEC producing countries to "cooperate to stabilize the markets."
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is warning of an oil price war if major non-OPEC producers like Norway and Russia do not coordinate action to prop up prices. OPEC, which produces 40 percent of the world's crude, faces a dilemma in responding to the price slump, which threatens the economies of its member states.
While the cartel is expected to cut production Wednesday, it remains cautious, with the economies of major industrialized countries facing a slowdown, hastened by the terror attacks in the United States on September 11. Oil prices have fallen by some 20 percent since then. Iran is OPEC's second largest producer, after Saudi Arabia, producing around 3.5 million barrels per day, of which 2.1 million are for export. — (AFP, Tehran)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
