Iran’s oil minister due in Vienna to attend OPEC meeting

TEHRAN,Dec.11(MNA) - Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi will leave Tehran for Vienna on Tuesday to attend the 162nd ordinary meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which will be held in Vienna on Wednesday. OPEC, which pumps out 35 percent of the world’s oil, may finally decide on a new head after a vote to appoint a successor to current Secretary-General Abdullah El-Badri was postponed in June. Occupying its dozen members’ minds this week would also be who should replace El-Badri, who is due to retire at the end of this year after six years as secretary-general, or administrative head of the cartel. On June 9, Iran called fellow OPEC members Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates oil quota violators and accused them of depressing global crude prices by over-pumping. “It is not right that two or three countries compensate for a country that is being sanctioned. OPEC members should not work against each other,” Iran’s OPEC governor, Mohammad-Ali Khatibi was quoted as saying at the time. Qasemi has said the country plans to increase its oil production capacity to up to 5.2 million barrels per day by early 2016. This requires some $300 billion investment in the oil industry, IRIB quoted him as saying. He said current capacity is about four million barrels per day.