Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 12
By Anakhanum Khidayatova - Trend:
Major oil exporters for two months have been trying to come to a consolidated decision on oil production freeze, but there is no consent among the OPEC member states, and there are no guarantees that Iranian delegates will come to Doha for the meeting of the leading oil supplying countries in the extended format, a consultant for the Expert Council of the Union of Russian Oil and Gas Producers, Eldar Kasaev told Trend Apr. 12.
"Iran has repeatedly stated that it has no plans to slow down oil production, on the contrary, the country seeks to achieve the level of output observed in 2011-2012, i.e. before the West introduced restrictions on export of Iranian raw materials to Europe," said Kasaev.
"At that time, daily production in the country reached nearly 4-4.3 million barrels," he said.
The expert went on to add that if the meeting in Qatar takes place Apr. 17 (and if it isn't postponed, as it happened in March), the following scenario is probable: a number of oil producing countries will agree to temporarily freeze oil production, but the Iranians (and, perhaps, the Libyans) won't support this initiative.
The expert said that such a protest move by Iran in the end will allow Saudi Arabia, its old geopolitical and economic enemy, not to physically stop the production of raw materials, even if the kingdom joins those who agree with the oil output freeze plan "on paper".
On April 17, major oil producers are expected to meet in Doha to discuss an agreement to freeze oil output at January 2016 levels.
Earlier Saudi Arabia stated that it will only freeze its oil output if Iran and other major producers do so. Iran in its turn said that Tehran will not join the oil output freeze plan.