OPEC Should Cut Output 2 Million Barrels, Iran’s Minister Says

(Bloomberg) — OPEC should cut crude oil production by 2 million barrels a day after prices tumbled, Iranian Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari said.

Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries ministers are arriving in Vienna today for a meeting tomorrow. The group’s president, Chakib Khelil, said that the group will “most probably” cut production and prices between $60 and $90 a barrel won’t worsen the global economic slowdown.


Oil prices have crashed from July’s records, trading at a 16-month low of $66.64 a barrel in New York earlier today, as the worst financial crisis since the 1930s threatens to push the global economy into a recession. Crude rebounded after Nozari spoke, gaining as much as 2.6 percent to $68.50.

“They will cut 2 million barrels a day from now til the end of the year,” Johannes Benigni, chief executive officer of Vienna-based consultant JBC Energy, said in Singapore today. “If they are cutting tomorrow a million and at the December meeting, it means the numbers will be implemented, if they’re lucky, in December or January.”

Bloomberg