Iran wants to increase its natural gas exports to Turkey, according
to Mansour Moazami, Deputy Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade of Iran.
Moazami,
who is also former managing-director of the National Iranian Gas
Company and former deputy oil minister of Iran told Anadolu Agency that
any impending negotiations between Turkey and Iran will focus on gas
prices.
"We want to increase our gas exports to our neighbor, friend and brother Turkey," he said.
"I
hope we can solve this matter because the price is negotiable for both
sides. We are going to negotiate and try to solve it [to our mutual
benefit] and I'm sure we will increase all exports to Turkey," he said.
- Iran's oil production
In
line with Iran's aim to regain its footing in the energy market,
Moazami explained that Iran similarly wants to increase oil production.
During the sanctions period, Iran's production could not be increased
and it consequently could not expand its market share.
"After the
sanctions, we want all rights. We don't have any problems [with
customers] in the oil trade. Our traditional customers want to increase
imports from Iran. We have good customers, and after all sanctions were
removed, we started to negotiate increasing our oil exports," he said.
With
Iran's enhanced facilities to boost oil production, it wants to
increase crude production from its current level of 3.8 million barrels
to 4 million barrels per day by the end of this year.
"We are
going to decrease our local consumption. According to our own data,
domestic consumption will increase to 2 million barrels per day within
five years. It means that we will have one million barrels extra for
exports," he noted.
- Possible OPEC decision
Moazami said
that he does not think a production freeze decision will be made at
OPEC's informal meeting on Sept. 26 to 28, 2016 in Algeria.
"I
don't think an OPEC production freeze is possible. Because you can see
the supply, demand and the economic dynamics in the world. Everything is
normal," he said, adding that he also does not expect an increase in
oil prices.
With high expectations for the outcome of the OPEC
meeting, oil prices spiked to its peak level of $49.40 from $46.70 on
Monday, but later settled lower at $47.63 after a mutual statement
between Saudi Arabia and Russia to cooperate in global oil markets,
failed to live up to the hype. The global benchmark Brent oil is trading
at $48.81 at 08:17 GMT on Thursday.
"We want to increase the oil
prices but the reality is different and it's very difficult. I was
working for the Ministry of Petroleum for more than 31 years. It's hard
to tell the real price of oil because it is very difficult with
estimations, and it depends on many elements and factors," he added.
The
most recent formal meeting of OPEC was held in Vienna in June following
the Doha meeting in April to discuss freezing oil output. However, both
meetings met with failure to agree on freezing oil production at
January 2016 levels to shore up prices.
Iran did not join the
previous production freeze attempt in April as it wants to maximize its
oil output after the lifting of sanctions following the nuclear deal
between Tehran and P5 +1 countries signed in July last year.
(Anadolu Agency)