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Page added on June 9, 2012
Iran condemns oil quota ‘violators’ of OPEC
Iran on Saturday blasted fellow OPEC members Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates as oil quota “violators”, accusing them of depressing global crude prices by over-pumping.
Iran’s OPEC representative, Mohammad Ali Khatibi, said Tehran had officially protested to the OPEC that Saudi Arabia was “saturating the market” under pressure from the United States and the European Union, according to the official IRNA news agency.
“It is not right that two or three countries compensate for a country that is being sanctioned. OPEC members should not work against each other,” Khatibi was quoted as saying.
Iran is the second-biggest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries after Saudi Arabia.
It has repeatedly lashed out at Saudi Arabia, a U.S. ally, for opening oil spigots to make up for a shortfall in the market resulting from a cut in Iranian crude sales because of Western sanctions.
In the first quarter, Saudi output swelled by 250,000 barrels per day to 9.9 million bpd from a year earlier, according to OPEC estimates.
“Saudi Arabia, and two of its allies are the biggest OPEC (quota) violators,” Khatibi was quoted as saying, referring to Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
He called that “the main reason for a drop in oil prices in the market.”
Saudi Arabia, he said, “is under pressure” from the United States and Europe to pump more ahead of a July 1 EU oil embargo on Iranian crude exports.
On Friday, Brent North Sea crude for July delivery was at $99.47 a barrel in London trade, close to the $100 target aimed for by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
“Iran and some other OPEC members, such as Venezuela and Algeria, are against” an increase in quotas, Khatibi said.
In the OPEC meeting, Iran is also expected to push the nomination of a former oil minister, Gholam Hossein Nozari, for the top post of OPEC secretary general.
2 Comments on "Iran condemns oil quota ‘violators’ of OPEC"
BillT on Sun, 10th Jun 2012 2:00 am
The Saudis are making a very dangerous enemy of Iran. Considering that most of Saudi Arabia is in reach of Iran’s missiles, it should be thinking twice before it kisses the Empire’s A–.
Harquebus on Sun, 10th Jun 2012 7:01 am
This doesn’t look good, now that the squabbling has started.