Tehran, Iran, December 4
By Mehdi Sepahvand -- Trend:
The Organization for Oil Exporting Countries (OPEC) has announced that it welcomes Iran's intended output boost.
The announcement was made during the press conference of the 168th Meeting of the OPEC Conference in Vienna, cast live on the OPEC website on December 4.
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh has said that his country intends to increase its oil output by one million barrels a day after it is freed from international sanctions.
OPEC Conference President Emmanuel ibe Kachikwu said the organization is looking forward to seeing the effects of Iran's output increase.
Countries have a right to bring their resources to the market, he asserted.
"Iran is coming. But we don't know when. We have to accommodate one way or another," OPEC Secretary General Abdallah Salem el-Badri said during the same press conference.
Rival Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said earlier the day that growing global demand will be able to absorb an anticipated jump in Iranian production next year.
Iran is expected to be freed from international sanctions by the end of 2015. Zanganeh has said the country will not abandon its right to claiming its previous output, stressing that other OPEC members who used Iran's shrinking share of the OPEC during recent years to increase their output would have to open room for Iran.
The OPEC officials also announced that the organization has decided to preserve its current output ceiling in place until the next meeting in June 2016.