TEHRAN, July 9, (Agencies): Iran’s caretaker oil minister said on Saturday that OPEC was opposed to any increase in output ceilings in the absence of “well-studied justifications”.
“Iran’s policy as head of OPEC is to maintain the production ceiling of this organisation,” Mohammad Aliabadi was quoted as saying by the semi-official Mehr news agency.
“It is an issue which a majority of OPEC members agree with.” Iran holds the rotating OPEC presidency.
Iran was a leading opponent of Saudi Arabia’s U.S.-backed push for oil exporter group OPEC to agree to a coordinated increase in production at its last meeting on June 8.
Having failed to get Iran, Venezuela and Algeria to agree to an official OPEC increase, the world’s biggest crude exporter said it would up production and sell as much oil as customers around the world wanted.
Iran has accused Saudi Arabia of seeking to grab market share from other OPEC members.

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TEHRAN: Iran’s energy minister aims to issue $1 billion of dollar denominated bonds, the students news agency ISNA reported on Saturday.
“We are preparing to issue $1 billion of bonds to develop electricity and water projects,” Majid Namjou told ISNA, adding the bonds would be offered inside Iran and abroad.
Namjou’s announcement comes as plans to merge his ministry with the Oil Ministry are on hold due to opposition from parliament.
Iran is under increasingly tight economic sanctions due to western fears it is seeking nuclear weapons capability, something Iran denies. The sanctions make it harder for Iran to find foreign investors in its oil and gas sector and to access international financial services.


The price of Kuwaiti crude oil increased $2.89 to $110.46 per barrel (pb) on Friday, said Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) on Saturday.
US financial data attributed to the rise, particularly from the US Department of Energy, which showed a drop in US oil reserves of around 0.9 million barrels last week compared to 4.3 million barrels a week earlier.
Mostly positive economic data from American banks on oil prices this year and employment last month, also led to this rise.