By NNN-Xinhua,
Tehran : Iran’s Minister of Oil Gholam-Hossein Nozari said that Iran will cut its crude oil production by199,000 barrels per day from Nov. 1, the official IRNA news agency reported on Friday.
“On an OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) decision, Iran will based on a specified quota cut 199,000 barrels per day as of Nov. 1, 2008,” Nozari was quoted as saying on Thursday.
Nozari said that Iran expected all OPEC members to lower their oil production according to the declared quota based on the decision made by the oil cartel last week.
Asked how long the OPEC decision will be in effect, Nozari said, “Until we are able to meet stability in the oil market and OPEC makes a new decision on the issue, the trend will continue.”
The Iranian oil minister said that OPEC may hold another emergency meeting prior to the December meeting in Algeria if crude oil prices continue falling.
“That was an agreement reached among OPEC members to hold another extraordinary meeting before the December meeting in Algeria,” Nozari said. “We hope oil market will stabilize.”
Iran, which holds estimated recoverable oil reserves of 138 billion barrels, produces 4.2 million barrels of oil per day.
At the emergency meeting in Vienna on Oct. 24, OPEC ministers agreed to reduce output by 1.5 million barrels a day to 27.3 million bpd from Nov. 1 in an attempt to prevent prices falling further.
Oil prices fell to below 65 U.S. dollars a barrel in New York on Friday as the prospect of a shrinking global economic growth and weakening energy demand weighed on the market.