Iran Warns Of Possible Oil Price Collapse
August 04, 2003
Dow Jones Newswires
Nasdaq Headlines
LONDON -- Iran's oil minister says oil prices could collapse if the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries doesn't get cooperation from non-OPEC countries once Iraqi crude exports reach significant levels.
"Production increases by non-OPEC countries and a failure by OPEC to cut output while Iraqi oil returns to the market will see oil prices collapsing," OPEC's official news agency, Opecna, reported Iranian Petroleum Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh as saying.
He said the speed and extent of Iraq's return to the oil markets remains unclear.
"It is impossible at present to exactly project the future shape of Iraqi (oil) production, but OPEC will decide on the Organization's output in case of any change in Iraq's production," the Iranian News Agency IRNA quoted him as saying.
OPEC is scheduled to meet in Vienna on Sept. 24 to review the market and supply and demand forecasts, in its bid to keep prices within the group's target range of $22-$28 a barrel for the OPEC basket of seven crudes.
Iraq's oil production is estimated to be around 1 million barrels a day, compared with its pre-war capacity of 2.8 million b/d.
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