OPEC should take action to calm the stressed market: Zanganeh

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said on Monday that OPEC nations should try to balance the oil market which has tumbled as the worries over the impacts of the coronavirus continue to grow.

Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting with the representatives of the Iranian Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters' Union (OPEX), Zanganeh mentioned the possibility of an extraordinary OPEC ministerial meeting due to the coronavirus worries, saying: "Following the spread of the virus in China and the subsequent halt in some factories and the country’s transportation industry, oil consumption in China has been negatively affected and caused demand for crude oil to fall significantly.”

"In talks that I had with the OPEC president, I emphasized that if there was to be a gathering before the scheduled meeting in March, all members should be prepared to reduce their production,” he said.

“But if we have to negotiate the matter in an extraordinary meeting and then decide, there would be no need to hold an early meeting and the 178th gathering should be held on the previously scheduled date that is March 4-5,” he added.

Mohamed Arkab, Minister of Energy of Algeria has been chosen as OPEC periodic president for one year, with effect from 1 January 2020, while Diamantino Pedro Azevedo, Angola’s Minister of Mineral Resources and Petroleum has been set as alternate president, for the same period.

In the 177th OPEC meeting which was held in early December 2019 in Vienna, OPEC+ nations decided that their production cuts would be increased by 503,000 barrels per day (bpd) as of January 1, 2020, from 1.2 million bpd to 1.703 million bpd.

source: Tehran Times