Tehran, Iran, Apr. 15
By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:
Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh will not attend OPEC's Doha meeting, according to the Oil Ministry's Public Affairs Director Akbar Nematollahi.
Nematollahi said that Zanganeh's non-attendance is due to pre-arranged engagements, the ministry reported on its official website.
"The Iranian oil minister has already stated Iran's positions in bilateral and multilateral meetings with OPEC members and non-members. Iran will not be a signatory of the to-be Doha agreement, something that the oil producers have understood," Nematollahi added.
But Iran's representative in the OPEC board of trustees, Hossein Kazempour will attend the meeting, according to the announcement.
OPEC's members, except for Libya and Gabon, as well as non-OPEC oil producers, except for Canada, the US and Norway, making up a total of 25 countries, are to meet in Doha, Qatar on Sunday to review a crude output freeze plan, proposed in January.
Iran has expressed its non-commitment to the proposal, stressing that it has suffered a huge decline in the oil export due to sanctions and now it intends to make up for the damage by boosting production to the pre-sanctions level.