Azerbaijan, Baku, June 9/Trend M. Moezzi, D.Khatinoglu/
Iran's representative to OPEC attributed low oil prices to some members' violation of production quotas and economic problems confronting the U.S., Europe and some Asian countries.
Today, OPEC produces about 2 million barrels of oil a day over its official production ceiling, the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) quoets Mohammad Ali Khatibi as saying.
In December 2011, the organization's members agreed to put selling level of oil production at 30 million barrels a day of oil.
OPEC Statistics show that the organisation's output exceeded 31.621 million bpd in April.
Saudi Arabia and Iraq produce 9.897 million bpd and 3.025 million bpd of oil, respectively. The figures are 1.621 million bpd and 624,000 bpd more than the figures for 2010. This is while Iran's oil output has decreased by 510,000 bpd since 2010, according to OPEC reports.
Iraq announced that it will boost oil output by 400,000 bpd in the current year. Iran has always been opposed to any increase in the ceiling output, because increasing the output will decrease prices in the international market. The falling oil price has decreased Iran's oil revenues, a country highly dependent on oil exports.
Khatibi pointed to Saudi Arabia and its two allies, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as the biggest violators of OPEC's production ceiling and the primary cause of lower global oil prices. Khatibi said Saudi Arabia is pressured by the world's big oil consumers to calm the oil market and does so by boosting production.
Iran's Oil Minister, Rostam Ghasemi, has sent a letter protesting OPEC countries' acting against another member.
The 161st meeting of the Conference of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is to start on June 14 in Vienna.
Iran and some other OPEC members like Venezuela and Algeria will oppose pushing the organization's daily production ceiling from 30 million barrels a day to 31 million.
Yesterday, the price for a barrel of oil with a July delivery date dropped 72 cents to $84.10 on New York's Mercantile Exchange (NYSE).