A view from Iran,
Iranian oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said on
Friday that oil producing countries within OPEC have acted responsibly
to stabilize oil market by adding 2.5 million barrels per day to
their total production within six months, thus preventing any lack of
supply.
He said that in the past two months, there has been a hike in
crude supply in the market by some 1.5 to 2 million b/d.
Noting that fundamental elements in the oil market do not justify
oil price hike in the past month, he referred to psychological
factors, speculation in the oil market and US presidential elections
as important factors in this regard.
The Iranian oil minister said the US imports now some 9 million
barrelsof crude per day while it needs 10 to 10.5 million barrels,
adding that it is not able to import more due to certain technical
problems. he also noted that introduction of a new reformulated
gasoline in the US market has increased their demand for sweet crude
oil, while most of the OPEC production is of the sour type.
On decision of OPEC ministers in their next week meeting, Zanganeh
said OPEC members are not for high crude prices or creating artificial
demand in the market and have repeatedly supported dialogue among the
oil producers and consumers.
Noting that world economic growth forcast was 4.5 percent for
2000 while the figure is 3.9 for next year, he said OPEC ministers
should take into consideration this decline in world growth in order
to avoid imbalanced supply of oil in the market.
About Saudi Arabia's reported unilateral increase in supply by
600,000 barrels a day as of July 1, Zanganeh said this has not been
confirmed by his Saudi counterpart and Saudi Arabia as a founding
member of OPEC is not expected to act against the organization's
decisions.
On the current situation of the world oil market, Zanganeh said it
is too complicated to allow a sound forcast, but what is a clear fact
in the market is a dwindling excess capacity of crude production which
stands now at less than 2 million barrels per day. He said non-OPEC
oil producing countries are now doing their best to produce 49 million
barrels per day and the OPEC production stands at 28.5 million b/d.
The Iranian oil minister said drop of oil prices in an 18-month
period led to insufficient income for OPEC members which prevented
these countries from investing enough money for creating excess
capacities. Zanganeh underlined that the US sanctions against Libya,
Iran and Iraq have had a tremendous negative impact on oil supply in
the world, disrupting the mid-term creation of excess capacity. |
