Speaking out: Iran's Opec governor Mohammad Ali Khatibi
Iran official expects Opec to reduce output
Iran's Opec governor said the oil producer organisation was expected to lower its output ceiling when it next meets later this month, Iran's Mehr News Agency reported today.
Mohammad Ali Khatibi said such a move would be a way to help reduce stockpiles, which he said had risen in most industrialised countries, Mehr reported.
"The volume of crude stockpiling in the world has risen, in comparison to the past five years, from an average of 52 days to 61 days," Khatibi was quoted as saying.
"In this connection it is predicted that Opec's crude production ceiling will be lowered in the organisation's next meeting," Khatibi said, referring to a session scheduled for 28 May.
Last month, Khatibi said that if the oil market continued to remain oversupplied the exporter group might decide to further cut output.
Opec has already agreed to reduce production since September by about 4.2 million barrels per day, or about 5% of world supply. It is estimated to have delivered about 80% of those cuts so far.
Oil extended gains towards $58 a barrel today, heading for weekly gains of more than 8% as signs the global economy may have reached bottom multiplied and stirred hopes of recovering oil demand down the road.
But the price is still sharply down from a peak of $147 a barrel in July last year.
Iran, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, is a traditional price hawk in Opec.
Khatibi said lower crude production as well as a drop in the supply of oil derivatives had helped improve the market.
He also said Opec was seeking to increase cooperation with major producers outside the grouping, such as Russia.
"One of Opec's policies is the expansion of cooperation with non-Opec producers," Mehr quoted him as saying.
Russia, the second-biggest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia, is not an Opec member and has resisted calls from the organisation to join in the cuts, reported Reuters.