IRAN CALLS FOR CUTTING OPEC’S PRODUCTION
By an IPS Correspondent
TEHRAN, 17 Apr. (IPS) As the United States is pushing for the end of international sanctions against Iraq, allowing the oil-rich nation to export "as much oil as it can", Iran called on the 12-members OPEC to reduce production in the second quarter of 2003 so as to "create a balance" between supply and demand on world markets.
Iranian Oil Minister Bizhan Namdar-Zanganeh said that there is currently a surplus in oil markets and warned that if this continues unchecked, oil price will slide in the long run, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported on Thursday.
"Iran's proposed prices for oil is between 22 to 28 US Dollars per barrel for the second quarter of 2003", the Minister told reporters on the sidelines of Iran's 8th International Oil, Gas and Petrochemicals Exhibition.
Namdar-Zanganeh further said once the Iraqi crisis comes to an end, the daily oil production of the country will return to the pre-war rate of three million barrels per day (bpd), adding that Iraq was even capable of boosting the output by 500,000 more barrels in less than a year.
Iraq’s pre 1991 war stood at over 3 million bpd and experts say that it could increase production to over five millions bpd within 2 to 3 years with the help of the latest industry’s technology which would be available to Iraq’s future government.
The price of the OPEC Basket of seven crude stood at 25.71 dollars a barrel on Wednesday, according to OPEC Secretariat calculations.
The Iranian Oil minister also said that despite the Iraqi crisis international oil majors such as France’s TotalFinaElf and Anglo-Holland Royal Dutch/Shell had now returned to start work in Iran.
IRNA said the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries has invited Iraqi Oil Minister Amer Mohammad Rashid to attend a consultative meeting of the cartel in Vienna on 24 April.
But it did not say how Mr Rashid could attend the meeting, since being one of the 55 high-ranking Iraqis on the American’s list of "most wanted men", he was not seen since 25 of March.
Iraq’s former authority ruled by Baghdad’s Dictator Saddam Hoseyn was toppled by the Coalition forces on 13 of April, following the surrender of Takrit, the hometown of Mr. Hoseyn and his family.
The agency quoted unidentified OPEC sources in London on Wednesday that an official invitation to the minister was sent through the Iraqi ambassador to Austria. "This is consistent with the formal protocol of OPEC meetings", the source has observed, not ruling out that the Iraqi Oil minister "might refuse to go to Vienna due to the situation (sic).
Meanwhile, the influential "Financial Times" and "The Independent" said Thhursday that Washington is considering to name a Muslim oil executive to run the Iraqi oil industry and named Mr. Mohammad Hasan Marican, Head of Malaysia’s Petronas or Algeria’s Oil Minister Chakib Khelil for the job.
Malaysia's National oil company Petronas on Thursday has played down suggestions that its Chief Executive Officer could be a prospective candidate to run the Iraqi oil company in the post-war reconstruction of that country.
In an email statement to IRNA, a Petronas spokesperson said the company was aware of the speculation in two foreign press reports earlier this month.
"We are aware of the reports but to date we have not been approached. Any decision will require the approval of the government of Malaysia", the statement said.
According to the reports, the names of Hassan and Chakib Khelil had come up during discussions in Washington on plans for the post-conflict Iraqi oil sector, IRNA said.
However, the two were not the only candidates named, and neither were they the more prominent ones. The Independent had named Phillip Carroll, a US citizen who was chief executive of Shell's American business until 1998, as the "leading candidate" for the post, in line with plans for leading western oil executives to be brought to Iraq to either administer or advise on the country's industry.
Another Western oil company executive, former BP Deputy CEO Rodney Chase, was said to have already been picked by Pentagon to manage Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organisation.
The proposals for the running of the oil sector were based on the parallel plan to appoint American retired general Jay Garner as interim Iraqi governor. ENDS IRAQ OIL 17403