Khatibi: Member States Should Respect OPEC Decisions

Tehran, May 30, IRNA – Iran's OPEC Governor Mohammad Ali Khatibi said on Tuesday that the member states should respect OPEC decisions and honor their commitments to their fellow oil producers. Commenting on Saudi oversupply to the market to push down Brent crude price to the level of 100 dollars a barrel, Khatibi said instead of focusing on determination of price levels, the OPEC members should leave the task with global markets and avoid unilateralism in production level. As for OPEC oil ministers' meeting this month, Khatibi said the 161st OPEC session will review market conditions and, market needs to the crude oil and make necessary decisions on the issue. He said fall or rise in the OPEC output level will depend on the market conditions but the OPEC ministers' decision will be based on maintaining balance in the market, still taking interests of both producers and consumers into consideration. On the oil market prices last week, Khatibi said weakness of global economy has been among main reasons for fall in the prices. He predicted that it does not seem that global oil prices to suffer sudden fall because OPEC is ready to return equilibrium to the market in any case and prevent fall in the prices. Meanwhile, Khatibi said OPEC will do its best to prevent unnecessary fluctuations in the prices. "Stability will be restored in the market if some western states contemplate on their political stance and behavior./end