Iran’s Oil Minister Sees Easy Way for OPEC+ to Extend Output Deal

“My understanding is, there is no difficulty extending the cooperation. It should be easy” to prolong the deal beyond the first half of the year, Zanganeh told reporters in Moscow after a meeting with his Russian counterpart Alexander Novak.

The current OPEC+ pact “is going ahead well,” Bloomberg quoted Zanganeh as saying.

The Iranian oil minister also noted that he and Novak have agreed at the meeting to strengthen ties between Tehran and Moscow.

Iran is exempt from oil-output cuts following US President Donald Trump’s decision to re-impose sanctions on Tehran last year.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies met in Vienna in December 2018 to work out the details of the new production-cuts pact.

The OPEC+ agreement to reduce oil output by 1.2 million barrels a day expires at the end of June. So far, there is little clarity on how willing the key members of the group are to extend it.

Russia, OPEC’s main ally outside the group, has advocated a wait-and-see approach, proposing to postpone a decision until May or June.

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