OPEC to reverse its decision?

July 4, 2004

The OPEC may postpone implementation of its own decision taken at the extraordinary 131st conference in Beirut on June 3, where its members agreed to raise quotas on crude oil production and export by 0.5 million barrels daily from August 1, thus raising their aggregate output to about 26 million barrels daily.

The statement was made by Iranian Petroleum Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh via the OPEC Vienna headquarters.

“At present prices on crude oil and lubricants are good and satisfy both exporting states and states that are large oil consumers,” Mr. Zanganeh pointed out.

“On July 1st we raised OPEC oil quotas by 2 million barrels per day, so at the extraordinary 132nd conference due on July 21 in Vienna, we will most probably confirm that the July 1 quotas remain unchanged. There is no need to bring additional 500,000 barrels of oil daily to the global energy markets, as we have already stabilized the raw materials markets,” the Iranian minister said.

Teheran has not made any proposals to the OPEC Secretariat General on increasing its export quotas as it is “quite satisfied” with the current ones, he added.

At present Teheran’s quotas make 3.744 million barrels of oil daily, of which 2.5 million barrels are exported, while the country’s potential can reach as high as 4 million barrels, experts estimate.