Iran's governor to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said consumer countries do not want the price of oil to rise and efforts by OPEC to balance supply and demand have been ineffective because of Western media and market speculators, Iran's English-language satellite channel Press TV reports on its Web site Sunday.
"The current economic situation in the world has created a lot of problems for industrialized countries. The low price of oil is an advantage that they do not want to lose," Mohammad Ali Khatibi said, according to Press TV.
Khatibi added that OPEC measures can push prices higher and create a balance between supply and demand, but Western propaganda and market speculators have rendered such measures ineffective, reports Press TV.
Khatibi's comments come less than two weeks after OPEC agreed on a 2.2-million-barrel-a-day output cut at the organization's Dec. 17 ministerial meeting in Oran, Algeria. The Islamic republic is the second-largest oil producer in OPEC.
Many traders and energy analysts have expressed skepticism that all OPEC members have been adhering to the production quotas agreed on in line with a 1.5 million output cut agreed on by the organization in October.
Khatibi said members have been reducing output, and attributed the speculation about actual member adherence to inaccurate reports by "Western media," according to Press TV.
"OPEC members have reduced between 60% to 80% of their output since November. This is suitable. But some Western media have tried to show that OPEC has been unsuccessful in this regard," Press TV cited Iran's OPEC governor as saying.
Light, sweet crude for February delivery settled Friday $2.36 higher at $37.71 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. February Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange settled up $1.76 at $38.37 a barrel.