Iran opposes raising OPEC output

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Oil producers in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries may opt to raise output when they meet next week due to rising political pressure, although Iran will lobby the cartel to trim oversupply instead, the country's OPEC governor told a newspaper. READ MORE

Bucking the trend of members looking to leave production unchanged on June 15, Hossein Kazempour Ardebili said it wanted the group to pull production back to official quota levels.

"It is possible those who control OPEC's oversupply may request a 1 million barrel per day (bpd) production increase, but members would agree to increase production by 500,000 bpd," he told the Sharq daily in an interview.

"This request is partly based on political issues rather than economic ones."

The European Commission said Friday it would ask OPEC to raise production later this week to ensure the security of supplies. Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest exporter, is the only country with significant volumes of spare capacity.

But Iran, typically hawkish about prices, "will ask OPEC members to go back to OPEC's ratified quotas," Kazempour said.

OPEC pumped nearly 30 million barrels per day (bpd) in May, putting its 10 members with quotas nearly 500,000 bpd above their official limit of 27.5 million bpd, a Reuters survey found.

Kuwait and Indonesia have said they favored letting production roll over at the next meeting. Venezuela has said OPEC could either take no action or cut production.

Oil Minister Abdullah al-Attiyah of Qatar, OPEC's smallest producer, told Reuters that earlier concerns about rising inventories had been swept aside by oil's surge back above $50 a barrel, leaving OPEC with few choices when it meets.

"It would be difficult to raise the ceiling or cut the ceiling now, but it's an issue that will be discussed," he said.

Iran's Kazempour told the newspaper that prices could slip back into a $40-$50 range during the winter. Indonesia's oil minister said at the weekend that there was little hope of prices easing below $50 a barrel in the near future.