Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 11
By Khalid Kazimov - Trend:
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh has said that time will help oil prices go back up, Fars news agency reported on Feb. 11.
The oil minister who was speaking on the sidelines of the Islamic Republic Revolution anniversary in Tehran said that the fall in oil prices is not a simple issue and cannot be resolved hastily.
"But of course in the past few days prices have increased for $10. To solve the problem, part of it can be addressed and another part can only be resolved in the course of time," Zanganeh reiterated.
Middle East producers are increasingly competing with cargoes from Latin America, Africa and Russia for buyers in Asia. Oil prices have dropped about 45 percent in the past six months as production from the U.S. and OPEC surged.
Iran's output rose to 2.78 million barrels a day in January from 2.77 million a month earlier as Iraq boosted supply to 3.9 million from 3.7 million, according to a Bloomberg survey of oil companies, producers and analysts.
Production in Saudi Arabia climbed 220,000 barrels a day to 9.72 million last month.
Iranian officials have claimed that the decrease in prices is politically motivated and has been carried out by Saudi Arabia to help exert political pressure on Iran and Russia in their standoff with the West.
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