Energy ministry sees steady production increases this decade Iran, Iraq adopt similar stance before cuts negotiations As Russia gets ready for talks on cooperation with OPEC on Monday, it’s using the playbooks of Iran, Iraq and Venezuela to gain leverage. Just days before Energy Minister Alexander Novak heads to Vienna for discussions that could include output curbs, Russian officials emphasized the nation’s ability to keep increasing record output to even loftier heights. They were echoing several other OPEC member that claim the group is underestimating their own production — a strategy that could secure them advantageous terms in any supply deal. “What most OPEC countries do ahead of any OPEC meetings is to talk up their own production prospects so that when they make any concessions, those concessions are not necessarily as big as they might have been,” James Henderson, senior research fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy […]