TEHRAN, Iran, March 9
Trend:
Iran's oil products sale would be a source of income if oil price continues to drop, member of the head of Petrochemical, Gas and Oil Exporters' Union Hassan Khosrojerdi told Trend.
"Currently all the work has been halted due to the COVID-19 outbreak, as Iran's oil minister Bijan Zangeneh stated the OPEC meeting was not interesting and its meeting conclusion was not desirable for all countries," he said.
"The meetings were held between 2 to 4 group of individuals and general meeting session did not have lots of participants that was caused by the outbreak which was concerning for the host and the guests," he added.
"Naturally a lot of topics were not discussed," he said.
"Considering the US debts and the challenge of COVID-19 in most countries, it's likely that there is tendency to increase price of oil, while the Saudi Arabia is not interested in increasing it," he said.
"Iran does not need the increase of oil price but if the situation continues there is no other way than to sell oil products ," he said.
Iran is one of the recent countries, affected by the rapidly-spreading coronavirus. According to recent reports from the Iranian officials, over 6,560 people have been infected, 194 people have already died. Meanwhile, over 2,100 have reportedly recovered from the disease.
The country continues to apply strict measures to contain the further spread. Reportedly, the disease was brought to Iran by a businessman from Iran's Qom city, who went on a business trip to China, despite official warnings. The man died later from the disease.
Following the reports of coronavirus spread in the Islamic Republic, several countries have taken measures, including closing borders and banning flights.
The Islamic Republic only announced its first infections and deaths from the coronavirus on Feb. 19.