Iran oil minister: Too much oil on the market

Iran’s oil minister suggested Saturday that a weekend OPEC meeting should decide to cut back on crude output, adding his voice to those in the organization who think supply has outstripped demand.

“There is too much oil on the market,” Gholam Hossein Nozari told reporters on the eve of a ministerial meeting of the 11-nation Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Other influential OPEC members have also said the group should reduce production.

Still their statements have left open whether they want to lower output quotas or if they favor a solution less likely to impact on the struggling global economy by simply seeking to end overproduction by some nations above levels allotted to them.

OPEC cuts agreed on since September were meant to take a daily 4.2 million barrels off the market. But there is general agreement that the 10 members of the group under production quotas are still overshooting their joint target level of just under 25 million barrels by about 800,000 barrels a day.

AP