Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh expects his fellow OPEC producers to make room for more crude oil exports from Tehran once sanctions are lifted, and throttle back output to balance global demand and supply, International Oil Daily reported.
OPEC has dealt with similar cases in which members came back to market "after limitations" and OPEC has accommodated them, so the group has "experience," Zanganeh said on arrival in Vienna.
Zanganeh spoke ahead of OPEC's ministerial meeting on Wednesday, the first meeting of the new Iranian team after President Hassan Rohani took office in August.
OPEC members "understand they should open the doors for [Iran], and not to fight with [Iran]," Zanganeh stated, and other members have echoed his sentiment.
Iran's rival, OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia, the world's key swing producer, is expected to tighten taps if needed to keep the market balanced.
Currently Iran is exporting more than 1 million barrels per day of crude oil, Zanganeh said, adding that this volume is not expected to rise in the next six months - the duration of the temporary nuclear agreement Tehran reached with the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany.
The agreement essentially caps Iran's nuclear ambitions in exchange for limited sanctions relief, and allows for a larger deal to be negotiated over the next six months.
Politics will determine whether Iran will ramp up exports. But if negotiations for a new nuclear deal are successful and sanctions are lifted, Iran could technically ramp up output "immediately," Zanganeh said.
"We have no technical difficulties. I emphasize that we have no technical difficulties to expand our exports and to return to 4 million b/d oil output," he claimed.
Western sanctions have cut Iranian crude oil exports by more than half from 2.2 million b/d in 2011, and depleted its state coffers.
Zanganeh said Tehran's government budget for 2014 is counting on exports at 1.5 million b/d, including 1.2 million b/d of crude plus 300,000 b/d of condensates.
Wednesday's meeting is, according to delegates, a relatively easy affair as the price is where OPEC wants it and the market is in balance, while OPEC is producing close to its 30 million b/d quota.
One potential issue of tension, a new production target for Iraq, will not be discussed at the meeting and should not be an issue until the group needs to formally cut production, a Gulf source said.
Oil Minister Abdul-Kareem Luaibi said that it will not be as simple as assigning Iraq a quota when it hits 4 million b/d, as some have suggested.
"It is not just about numbers, but also there are other factors such as reserves and also taking into account all the years Iraq was out of the market," Luaibi said.
For now, Iraq has been ramping up output much slower than expected and is in fact producing only as much as it was at the last OPEC meeting in May. "We keep saying that the quotas need to be discussed 'next meeting' every meeting," said the Gulf source.
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