LONDON--Iran's oil minister said Tuesday he wasn't alarmed by a
recent drop in crude oil futures, reflecting a widely-held view
among oil producers that prices are still at an acceptable level
and their decline won't last.
The remarks suggest members of the Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries--of which Iran is one of the largest--won't
need to alter their production for the time being.
Iran's oil minister Bijan Zanganeh was quoted by his ministry's
Shana website as saying "crude oil prices on global markets are at
an appropriate level and seasonal fluctuations in crude oil prices
will not continue."
The price of one barrel of crude oil traded in London--the U.K.
North Sea's Brent crude oil-futures contract--has declined by $12 a
barrel to about $102 a barrel since mid-June as fears of disruption
in Iraq failed to materialize and Libyan oil returned to global
markets. OPEC's own basket of crude--a combination of oils produced
in Africa and the Middle-East--now stands just below $100 a barrel,
the level normally acceptable to the group.
The decline in oil prices has raised questions over whether OPEC
will need to cut production. But the group's officials have said
such a move wouldn't be needed for now as they didn't expect prices
to fall much further.
Write to Benoit Faucon benoit.faucon@wsj.com
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