AMN/Vienna
Iran has walked out of a key meeting with the peers of Organisation Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) over its growing rift with Saudi Arabia on increasing the cartel’s oil output. Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said in Vienna yesterday that Tehran cannot go ahead.
The output curbs have been in place since January last year. But the proposal has run into resistance from Iran, Iraq and Venezuela, who would struggle to immediately raise output and fear losing market share.
Meanwhile, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak has said the OPEC and non-OPEC Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee has advised the alliance to increase oil output by 1 million barrels per day.
The ministerial monitoring committee, which includes six countries – Saudi Arabia, Russia, Kuwait, Venezuela, Oman and Algeria, in turn, makes recommendations to the OPEC plus meeting in large numbers, which will be held today and tomorrow.