Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Namdar-Zangeneh has welcomed a decision by Russia, the world's second largest oil exporter, to cut production by 50,000 barrels a day, but hopes for a further reduction, a report said Wednesday, November 28.
"Russia has accepted a reduction of 50,000 barrels a day, but a more important reduction would require a decision by this country's political leaders," Zangeneh said in talks late Tuesday with a Russian government official, Frit Gazizallin.
"The Russian official has promised to convey our message to the political leaders of his country," the Iranian minister said, adding that Gazizallin had assured that his country wants to cooperate with OPEC members, the state IRNA news agency reported.
Gazizallin is in Tehran for a reunion of the Iran-Russian economic commission, IRNA said. Russia, which unlike Iran is not a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), said Friday it would cut production by 50,000 barrels a day in the fourth quarter, a 20,000 barrel increase from its last proposed cut of 30,000. But Russia's pledge has been dismissed by OPEC and traders alike as merely symbolic.
At its recent conference in Vienna, OPEC agreed to reduce its output by 1.5 million barrels a day from January 1, as long as non-OPEC producers also cut production by 500,000 barrels a day. Norway has said it is ready to slash output by 100,000 to 200,000 barrels a day if other producers agree to output curbs, while Mexico has committed itself to a reduction of 100,000 barrels a day.
Cartel chief Ali Rodriguez said OPEC would continue to seek the cooperation of producers outside the organization, but would not take any decisions that could further depress oil prices.
Iran, which is the second largest producer in OPEC, has on numerous occasions called on non-OPEC members to cooperate with the cartel to reduce global oil production in a bid to avoid a further slump in prices. Iran's oil production fell to 3.45 million barrels per day (bpd) in October, the lowest monthly figure so far this year, the Middle East Economic Survey (MEES) reported earlier this month. Some 2.1 million barrels a day are exported. — (AFP, Tehran)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
