Iran’s oil minister is resisting a Saudi Arabia-led push to raise crude output, putting the two Middle East rivals on a collision course ahead of a closely watched Opec meeting at the end of the week. Bijan Zanganeh said he did not believe an agreement to relax production cuts — first agreed nearly two years ago amid a global supply glut — could be reached at the oil cartel’s meeting, insisting the group was not an “American organisation”.
“Opec is not an organisation to receive its instruction from President Trump,” Mr Zanganeh said on arriving in Vienna for the talks. The remarks sent Brent crude up by more than 1 per cent to a session high of $75.86 a barrel on Wednesday before the international benchmark went into reverse and settled at $74.74, down 0.5 per cent on the day. That is below a three-year high of more than $80 a barrel reached before Saudi Arabian and Russian officials held talks on output cuts.
However, Khalid al-Falih, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister, said late on Wednesday that while they were still in consultations with other members, more countries were backing the idea that it was “time for us to change course”. “The market demands more [oil] in the second half. The exact amount, the timing, the manner . . . we have a couple of days to discuss. “I am confident that at the end of the day reason will prevail and we will do the right thing.” Russia, the largest non-Opec crude producer, and Saudi Arabia have been in talks since May to ease production curbs which came into effect in January 2017, amid pressure from Donald Trump, who has publicly chastised Opec for high oil prices.