Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh, on a regional tour aimed at winning support to stabilize oil markets, discussed weak crude prices with Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah.
Zangeneh delivered a message from President Hassan Rouhani in his meeting with the emir on Tuesday and discussed the developments in the oil market, IRNA reported.
Zanganeh made a similar plea with the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, during his stopover in Doha on Monday.
Iran has indicated the steep fall in oil prices this year is the result of deliberate moves by some exporters who have kept production high to undermine Tehran's sanctions-hit economy.
The country is trying to offset the wide budget imbalance created by the drop in oil prices, and Rouhani has called for enhanced cooperation among the region's major producers to stabilize the global market.
Iran’s revenue from crude sales dropped 30 percent because of the declining oil prices, Rouhani said earlier.
Further Slump
Brent crude slipped near $81 a barrel on Wednesday, hovering just above a four-year low as the growing oil glut created by the U.S. shale boom continued to outweigh concerns about supplies from Libya.
With oil prices down 30 percent since June, delegates in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) are starting to suggest they may push for an informal output cut of around 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) when the producer group meets in Vienna on Nov. 27. Oversupply, doubts over whether OPEC will cut production and a strong dollar were weighing on prices. A stronger US currency makes dollar-priced commodities more expensive for other countries.
Kuwait Budget Surplus
Kuwait's government budget surplus reached 8.97 billion dinars ($30.84b) in the first six months of this fiscal year as expenditure remained well below the initial plan, preliminary finance ministry figures showed on Wednesday.
The major oil exporter's public spending was 6.12 billion dinars ($21 billion) in April-September, below 11.61 billion dinars ($39.8b) originally planned for the period. It was equivalent to only 26 percent of the 23.21 billion dinar ($79.7) spending plan for the 2014/15 fiscal year.
Kuwait has one of the strongest fiscal positions among the Persian Gulf oil exporters; it needs a crude oil price of just $54 per barrel for its state budget to break even, according to the International Monetary Fund.
