The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will try to achieve "desirable" crude oil prices and balance the market by removing excess oil supplies, Iran's OPEC governor said, the oil ministry's official Shana news Web site reports Saturday. "In order to get out of this situation, we will try to remove the extra supply from the market until the market reaches equilibrium, and once equilibrium is reached, we will have desirable prices," Mohammad Ali Khatibi said, according to Shana.
"OPEC countries agree with this policy, therefore we must also get non-OPEC member countries to (move in the) direction of this policy," Khatibi added, Shana reports.
OPEC decided in late October to reduce output by 1.5 million barrels a day in a bid to curb rapidly falling oil prices. In its next scheduled meeting on Dec. 17 in Oran, Algeria, the group is expected to decide on further action amid a $100 drop in crude prices to $47 a barrel since July.
"In the Algeria meeting, OPEC member countries must act to reach a consensus and make a decision that will affect the market and strengthen it," Shana cites Khatibi as saying.