The Fuse

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh Arrives in Vienna for OPEC Meeting: Full Comments

by Leslie Hayward | December 03, 2015

In this video, Zangeneh provides the following comments:

– He compares any potential efforts from OPEC members to restrict Iran’s oil exports to “continuing sanctions against Iran.”
– Argues that Iran had no role in the oil price drop, which occurred because other OPEC members exceeded the production ceiling.
– Predicts that Iran’s oil production will increase by .5 mbd once sanctions are lifted “in early 2016,” and shortly after that, Iran’s production will increase by 1 mbd to 3.8 to 3.9 mbd.
– Says that Iran will “welcome any proposal” that wants to “make balance between production and supply and demand in the market,” suggesting that Iran would be willing to participate in a collaborative OPEC cut.
– Say that it doesn’t appear that OPEC can change the low price situation in the short term and needs to come to a long term strategy.
– Regarding a potential cut including non-OPEC producers, he says “we welcome them to accompany to join us to contribute with us for more decrease to cut the production.”
– Says that international oil companies have responded positively to Iran’s production contract proposals so far, but have yet to sign MOUs.

UPDATE:

-Question (in Persian): “Mr. Zanganeh, it’s been said that Saudi Arabia may agree to a production cut if non-OPEC nations reduce production and Iraq remains at the 4 million barrels per day level. If this is agreed to [by them], is Iran ready to refrain from immediately returning its 500,000 barrels per day to the market as soon as sanctions are lifted?”

Zanganeh reponse: “We don’t accept any discussion about increasing Iran’s production after [the] lifting [of] the sanctions. It’s our right and anyone…cannot limit us to do it, and we will not accept anything in this regard. And we don’t accept, we don’t expect our colleagues in OPEC to put pressure on us to continue sanctions against Iran. It means they want us to continue sanctions against the Iranian nation and it’s not acceptable, it’s not fair, and we have no responsibility for the situation that is in the market.”

Mehrun Etebari contributed to this reporting.

topics: Iran, OPEC, Video, Vienna, Vienna Intercontinental Hotel