TEHRAN, Iran - Iran on Wednesday snubbed a proposal agreed to by four influential oil producers
to cap their crude output if others do the same. A senior Iranian Oil
Ministry official said Tehran has no intention of freezing oil output
levels.
Mahdi Asali, Iran's OPEC envoy, said his country will in
fact keep increasing its crude exports until it reaches levels attained
before international sanctions were imposed on Tehran over its nuclear
program.
Asali's comments came as Iran's oil minister was expected
to hold three-way, closed-door talks in Tehran with his counterparts
from Iraq and Venezuela.
On Wednesday, Venezuela joined Russia,
Saudi Arabia and Qatar in conditionally agreeing to cap their output at
last month's levels in order to halt a slide that has pushed oil prices
to their lowest point in more than a decade. Oil prices recently
plummeted below $30 a barrel, the lowest in 13 years.
The four
countries made their announcement following an unexpected meeting on
Tuesday in the Qatari capital of Doha that pointedly did not include
Iran. They agreed to act only if other producers made similar freezes.
Asali
said the fall in oil prices should be blamed on oversupply and that it
was up to Saudi Arabia and others to cut down production to boost oil
prices. He said the four nations that participated at the Doha gathering
could stabilize oil prices on their own -- if they cut their production
by 2 million barrels a day.
"These countries increased their
production by 4 million barrels when Iran was under sanctions," Asali
was quoted as saying by the Shargh daily. "Now it's primarily their
responsibility to help restore balance on the market. There is no reason
for Iran to do so."
Iran is eager to ramp up its exports now that
sanctions related to its nuclear program have been lifted, saying
recently it aims to put another 500,000 barrels a day on the market.
Figures from the International Energy Agency show it pumped 2.9 million
barrels daily in December, before sanctions were lifted.
Iran used to export 2.3 million barrels per day, but its crude exports fell to 1 million in 2012.
On
Tuesday, Iran's petroleum minister, Bijar Namdar Zangeneh, signaled the
Islamic Republic has no intention of giving up its share of the market.
He acknowledged that global markets are "oversupplied," but he said
Iran "will not overlook its quota," according to comments carried by his
ministry's Shana news service.
Even with Iran's cooperation, it was unclear if the Doha plan would be enough to put a floor under prices.
The
United Arab Emirates' energy minister, Suhail Mohamed al-Mazrouei's,
refused on Wednesday to discuss the Doha proposal after giving a keynote
address at a Dubai conference in which he mentioned low oil prices only
in passing.
"I will only talk about this conference," he said, before smiling and walking away from reporters' shouted questions.
He
later took to Twitter to say his country's oil policy "is open to
cooperate with all producers toward mutual interest of the market
stability and we are optimistic on the future."
Kuwait, another Gulf OPEC member, signaled it was willing to go along with the Doha plan.
Anas
al-Saleh, Kuwait's deputy premier, finance minister and acting oil
minister, said in a statement his country was committed to the proposal
if others join in: "Kuwait hopes the agreement would provide a positive
atmosphere for oil prices, and for the market to regain balance, and
calls on all to support stability of markets."
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