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Iran Expects OPEC to Control Quotas: Minister | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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TEHRAN (AFP) – Iran, the number two oil producer in OPEC, expects the cartel to discuss ways of controlling the quotas of member countries at its next meeting in September, the official news agency IRNA said.

“In case of the continuation of a downward trend in oil price, one of the serious discussions in the next OPEC meeting will be definitely the quotas,” IRNA quoted Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari as saying.

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries is scheduled to hold its next regular meeting on September 9 in Vienna.

“OPEC, as the responsible body to control the market, should be more meticulous for the control of quotas,” the oil minister said.

“The (member) countries that have increased their capacity should control it… The issue is that some countries have been supplying more than their quota,” he added.

Nozari said in July that Iran was against any hike in the cartel’s output quota despite continued high crude prices.

Iran is the world’s fourth-largest crude oil producer and tension over its nuclear program helped push crude prices to record highs above 147 dollars a barrel on July 11.

But prices dropped by around 20 dollars since then.

In London, Brent North Sea crude for September delivery soared as high as 127.94 on Friday before settling at 124.18 dollars.