While OPEC member states agreed to keep production levels at 30 million bpd for the next six months at least, their attempts to balance production and prices could be thrown off course by Iran, which immediately restated its intention to boost crude exports by as much as 1 million barrels per day (bpd) if sanctions are lifted. “The main issue for Iran is to regain its traditional share of the oil market,” its Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh told CNBC at the OPEC meeting in Vienna, although he said that he did not think that Iran’s re-entry into the market would trigger a slump in oil prices.
The Minister also confirmed that Iran had entered into an “oil-for-goods” with Russia. Due to begin next week, Russia will provide Iran with steel and wheat in return for 500,000 bpd.
Iran in threat to OPEC agreement and enters into barter deal with Moscow
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh