Iran Not Ready to Cap Oil Output: Russian Minister
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The Russian energy minister said Saturday Iran is still not ready to freeze its oil production.
“As I’ve said before, Iran has quite constructively reacted as a whole to the proposals that are currently being discussed by our four (Russia, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Qatar), but I’d say that (Iran) isn’t ready to join them yet,” Alexander Novak said in a televised interview on Saturday, Sputnik News reported.
His remarks came after Russia, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, following a meeting in Doha on Tuesday, announced that the four countries are ready to freeze oil production at January levels if other producer countries do the same.
Oil prices have tumbled about 70 percent since June 2014, hit by oversupply, sluggish demand and concerns over the global economic outlook.
Iran has repeatedly stressed that it will continue ramping up its oil production to reclaim its market share following the removal of anti-Tehran sanctions.
Tehran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) on July 14, 2015 finalized a comprehensive deal on Tehran’s nuclear program and implemented it on January 16.
The comprehensive nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), terminated all nuclear-related sanctions on Iran after coming into force.