Tehran, Iran, Nov. 17
By Milad Fashtami - Trend:
A member of Iranian parliament's Energy Commission says the upcoming OPEC members meeting seems doesn't cut OPEC's oil output.
According to OPEC's latest monthly report, the 12 members of this Cartel decreased oil output by 226,400 barrels to 30.253 million barrels per day, while the ceiling level of oil output should have been at 30 million barrels per day due to agreement among members.
On the other hand, OPEC says that the demand for OPEC crude is estimated at 29.5 mbpd in 2014. In 2015, required OPEC crude is seen averaging 29.2 mbpd.
The OPEC website also put the Cartel's oil basket price at $73.47 per a barrel on Nov.14.
OPEC is scheduled a meeting among members on Nov.27.
Robert Biglerian, a member of Energy Commission in Iran's Parliament told Trend on Nov.17, "It's not clear for me what measures will Iran plan to take against slipping oil prices in the global markets, but the major agenda among the global oil producers is not the fall in the oil price, but preserving their own share in oil markets. "I don't believe any OPEC member agree with declining its oil output in the current situation".
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh told Trend on Nov.13 that Iran will exchange information with the other 11 members to evaluate the situation and to make a decision how OPEC can stabilize oil prices.
"I think OPEC members are in a maturity level that can take important measure in sensitive situations in favor of members' interests," he underlined.
Zanganeh also said that Iran will compensate for the effect of low oil revenues on upstream projects by issuing credits from the National Development Fund to the contractors which engaged in upstream projects.
Iran's yearly budget is set based on oil price at $100 per a barrel, but according to OPEC's official website, its oil basket price dropped to $76.96 on Nov.11 compared to $107.89 in mid-June.
The effect of dropping oil price is double on Iran because Iran's fiscal year will end on March 20, 2014.
According to the yearly budget, Iranian government should deliver 29 percent of oil revenues to the National Development Fund of Iran (NDF) to be used as financial facilities in the private sector's projects. According to estimations, Iran would face a $2 billion deficit in oil revenues to meet the considered figure in budget law.
The Fund's assets were $64.4 billion until August, the chairman of the board of directors of the NDF Qasem Hosseini said.
Biglerian says that Iranian government hasn't asked either Parliament approval for funding the projects from NDF assets, nor reviewing the budget law which is set based on $100- oil price yet.
He emphasized that Parliament is ready to consider any measures to solve oil price-related problems.