Iran will help other oil producers stabilize the world market so long as fellow OPEC members recognize its right to regain lost market share, the country’s oil minister said on Friday in remarks made ahead of next month’s meeting of the oil exporters group.
Iran, OPEC’s third-largest producer, boosted output after Western sanctions were lifted in January, and had refused to join OPEC and some non-members in an accord earlier this year to freeze production levels.
“Iran will cooperate with OPEC to help the oil market recover, but expects others to respect its rights to regain its lost share of the market,” Bijan Namdar Zanganeh was quoted as saying by the oil ministry’s news agency SHANA.
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Asked about an oil output freeze plan, Zanganeh said that Iran supports any effort to bring stability to the market.
Tehran insists it will be ready for joint action only once it regains pre-sanctions output of 4 million barrels per day (bpd). It pumped 3.6 million bpd in July, OPEC figures show.
Zanganeh said Iran had no role in instability of the oil market, as the crisis happened when Tehran’s exports were less than 1 million bpd.
Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will meet on the sidelines of the International Energy Forum (IEF), which groups producers and consumers, in Algeria on Sept. 26-28.