Major oil producers agree to keep production

Iran says a quadripartite meeting that it hosted on Wednesday with the visiting oil ministers of Venezuela, Iraq and Qatar over measures to boost oil prices had ended with an agreement for OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers to keep their current output ceiling to help stabilize the market and boost the prices. 

“It was decided that OPEC and non-OPEC producers keep their current ceiling to help stabilize the market and improve the prices to the benefit of both the consumers and the producers,” Zangeneh told reporters after the meeting.

“This issue is supported by the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he has been quoted by the media as saying on Thursday.

The Iranian oil minister said this is the first step and the next steps to improve the current market conditions need to be taken likewise.

He emphasized that this is the start of a serious cooperation between OPEC and non-OPEC states to stabilize the market.

“An agreement for all to cooperate in boosting the prices is something Iran is happy to see happening,” Zangeneh said.  “Iran supports any measure to stabilize the market and improve the prices.”

The Iranian minister further emphasized that his Venezuelan, Qatari and Iraqi counterparts also agreed that there needs to be mechanism to monitor the conditions of the market as well as its behavior.

He also said that he had discussed Iran’s status and the prospects for its return to the market now that the sanctions have been lifted in the meeting.

“They had a logical attitude toward this issue,” Zangeneh said without providing further explanations.

Oil ministers from Venezuela, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Russia had earlier on Tuesday met in Doha to discuss ways to stabilize the market. They had announced at the end of the meeting that they had agreed to freeze output in a bid to shore up prices after a 70 percent drop due to chronic oversupply.