EMEA News
Iran to Attend "Urgent" Freeze Meeting - But Won't Agree to the Freeze
Eleven yes, three possibly, four unclear, and one no: that's the number of Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) members and non-members who will either be attending or shunning the April 17 talks to freeze oil output.
Amongst the eleven is Iran, although an unnamed source who disclosed this surprise development said oil minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh's presence at the table won't change the Islamic Republic's resolve not to freeze its output at January levels.
The country that won't appear at the talks is Libya.
Even though the freeze proposal has been widely dismissed by critics, politicians, and even entire nations (notably, Iran) as futile given current output and the global inventory glut, Qatar's energy ministry, which invited all OPEC members and major non-member producers to attend talks, wrote in its invitation letter that "The need has become an urgent matter to bring back balance to the market and recovery to the global economy."
Iran's presence at the table on April 17 strikes Olivier Jakob, managing director at Petromatrix GmbH, as disingenuous. "By attending the freeze meeting, and yet still being able to say they managed to escape the freeze, Iran earns some brownie points with its domestic audience," he says.
Jakob also noted that OPEC members' willingness to freeze production will soon be tested as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait restart their shared Khafji oilfield – which will oblige the countries to cut output elsewhere in order to keep their overall volumes steady.
Despite sending mixed signals over the past weeks about its participation in the Qatar meeting, Iran is consistent in one thing: its stated intention to consider freezing output only when it reaches production levels of 4 million barrels per day, compared to its current rate of 3 million barrels.
