Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries could be prepared to cut production by 1 million barrels a day in a "first phase" of cuts as world oil demand has fallen by 2 million barrels a day, the state Irna news agency reports Monday, citing Iran's OPEC governor.
"World crude oil demand has fallen by 2 million barrels a day," Mohammad Ali Khatibi said, according to Irna.
"Different figures for the reduction in production are being considered between OPEC members and this is between 1 million to 3 million barrels a day," Khatibi said, Irna reports.
"If 3 million barrels of oil is removed at once from OPEC's production, it would reduce its own market. But it is possible this reduction will take place in a few phases and it appears that OPEC for the first phase is prepared for a production cut of 1 million barrels of oil," Irna cites Khatibi as saying.
Khatibi added that it is possible that OPEC will hold additional extraordinary meetings before its next ministerial conference in December in Algeria, Irna reports.
"Given the present state of the oil market, there is a possibility that extraordinary meetings will be held at short time intervals to study the state of the oil market and make decisions," he said, reports Irna.