Iraq Says Would Not Be Fair to Be Asked by OPEC to Cut Oil Output
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - OPEC should allow Iraq to continue raising output with no restrictions, Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jafari told reporters in Budapest Tuesday, commenting on a plan by the organization to limit supply in order to support prices.
"We think we should increase output. Iraq is in a special situation ... we are at war," he said, referring to the ongoing military campaign to defeat Daesh, according to Reuters.
"It would not be fair for us to cut oil output."
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meets at the end of the month at its headquarters in Vienna. Iraq is the second-largest producer of the 14-member group, behind Saudi Arabia.
OPEC agreed in September to reduce output to help draw down a global supply glut that is weighing on oil prices, but left the details of the plan to be worked out later. The group is holding a so-called “technical meeting” at their Vienna headquarters Monday and Tuesday to discuss the mechanism for implementing the September agreement. The technical meeting will prepare for OPEC’s ministerial meeting Nov. 30 in Vienna.
Iraq has been ramping up its oil production for more than two years. Iraq’s Oil Minister Jabbar al-Luaibi has said Iraq should be exempted from cutting production because it needs the revenues to prosecute a costly war against Daesh.
