OPEC Meeting: Iran Rejects Saudi Oil Cut Deal

By Ebitonye Akpodigha

Iran has vehemently rejected an offer by Saudi Arabia requesting for a reduction in the volume of oil it produces.

Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) met on Tuesday in Algeria, including Saudi Arabia and Iran, the two major producers of oil, to discuss ways of stabilising price of oil in the market.

Saudi had been calling on oil producers to cut their outputs so as to stop the fall in prices of the commodity in the international market.

Before the meeting on Tuesday, Iran had said it would not accept the oil cut offer by Saudi because it needed to shore up its economy from the sale of oil after being left off the hook of sanctions placed on it for many years.

Iran depends heavily on oil and its production has stagnated at 3.6 million barrels per day.

Saudi, Russia, Algeria, Qatar and other OPEC member countries want Iran to freeze its output at 4 million bpd, but Iran is requesting for to 4.1-4.2 million bpd.

However, Iranian Oil Minister, Bijan Zanganeh, told journalists on Tuesday in Algeria that an agreement might be reached on November 30, when the next formal OPEC meeting holds in Vienna.