A senior Iranian Oil Ministry official said Monday that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries does not have a price on which cuts or increases in the organization's production ceiling would be based.
"OPEC member states have not reached a specific price figure in their decision makings about the organization's output," said Hussein Kazempour Ardebili, Iran's OPEC governor. OPEC suspended its official $22-$28 price band in Jan. 30, 2005, because concerns about global stability pushed oil prices up.
The often-quoted price of $60 per barrel for OPEC's reference basket is not the organization's reference price in any way, said Kazempour, who was speaking on the sideline of an oil and gas conference in Tehran.
"When we decided on reducing production ceiling by 1.2 million barrels a day (last month), the price was higher than $60 a barrel, but in spite of that we decided on a decrease," Kazempour said.
He said the member states are all fully committed to the 1.2 million b/d cut in production agreed in Doha last month.
"We are of the opinion that the reduction is being fully enforced," he said. "However, if we feel that the market is in need of additional cuts, we will decide so in Abuja," he added.
OPEC is scheduled to meet in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, on Dec. 14 to decide on its new production ceiling.
He said any change in the organization's production ceiling in Abuja will take into consideration such factors as the real supply by OPEC member states after its 1.2 million b/d in production cut, supply level by non-OPEC producers, the international oil market's demand for oil, and the level of oil and oil derivatives in stock in major consuming countries.
He said Iran's crude oil production is currently standing at around 4 million b/d--add to that an additional 5,000 to 10,000 b/d in production beyond the usual 4 million. Iran's average oil production in October stood at 4.17 million b/d although secondary sources often misquoted Iran's actual production to be below its quota of 4.11 million b/d assigned by OPEC.
The misquote is due to the secondary sources misconception about Iran's refinery production which is 1.65 million b/d and not 1.4 million b/d as quoted by these sources.
(Dow Jones Newswires 20/11/2006)