Iran Wants OPEC to Adjust Output for Libya, Iraq Oil

Bloomberg -- Iran’s Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said some OPEC members should curtail output to accommodate the return of Libyan crude to markets and an increase in Iraqi production, the state-run Mehr news agency reported.

Iran will suggest at the planned Dec. 14 meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries that members of the group that boosted output this year in the absence of Libyan exports should scale back production, Qasemi said, according to Mehr. Iran, OPEC’s second-largest producer after Saudi Arabia opposes increasing output and is seeking “fair” crude prices, the minister said, according to the report.

The comments reiterate a position Qasemi, who is also OPEC’s president this year, expressed in a Nov. 11 report on the Tehran-based ministry’s website. Saudi Arabia raised its output by about 1.3 million barrels a day between March and August to help offset the loss of exports from Libya during the uprising against Muammar Qaddafi. Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates also augmented output.

Libya pumped 500,000 barrels a day on average in November, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Iraq, the group’s third-largest producer, pumped 2.71 million barrels a day last month, the data show. OPEC supplies about 40 percent of the world’s crude.

--Editors: Bruce Stanley, Inal Ersan