Iran Hails Russia’s Role in Oil Production Cuts

OPEC agreed to cut output despite the US pressure, Zanganeh said on Friday, adding that Iran’s oil production ceiling remained unchanged after “very intensive and tough negotiations” with the OPEC members.

“We negotiated for about 10 hours with the OPEC members in order to exempt Iran from OPEC’s output reduction deal,” the Iranian minister said.

He said Iran succeeded in averting any harm to its share of the global market in the long term, stressing that Tehran would not favor high prices as a means of ensuring its long-term interests.

The minister further referred to Russia’s “determining role” in non-OPEC oil production, saying, “In a meeting that we held with that country’s (Russian) officials, Russia played a constructive role and accepted a 230,000-barrel cut from a 400,000-barrel output of non-OPEC members.”

After two days of talks at the OPEC headquarters in Vienna, OPEC member states and 10 other oil producing nations agreed to cut output by 1.2 million barrels a day despite opposition from US President Donald Trump.

The OPEC members are planned to cut their output by 800,000 barrels and non-OPEC members by 400,000 barrels.

Friday’s deal, however, has exempted Iran, along with Venezuela and Libya.

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