Iran Sees No OPEC Output Change as Country Seeks $70-$80 Oil

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Iran’s oil minister sees no imminent change in OPEC’s output strategy even as he urged fellow members of the group to cut their collective production to buoy crude to a range of $70 to $80 a barrel.

Iran is preparing to ramp up its own output once world powers remove sanctions on its economy, regardless of any decisions by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh told reporters Monday at an industry conference in Tehran.

“No one is happy” with prices at current levels, he said. “OPEC should decide to manage the market by reducing the level of production,” Zanganeh said. “It seems that the atmosphere is not well for making a change in the market.”

OPEC has exceeded its official production target for 16 consecutive months as the group seeks to defend sales amid a global supply glut. Brent crude, a global benchmark, has slumped 43 percent in the last 12 months and was at $48.99 a barrel in London on Monday at 5:07 p.m. local time. OPEC, supplier of about 40 percent of the world’s oil, plans to assess output when ministers from its 12 members meet on Dec. 4 in Vienna.