Zanganeh Urges OPEC to Address Libya, Nigeria Output

OPEC’s commitment to cutting production to clear a global glut is working, but the group needs to address rising output from Libya and Nigeria, Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said.

Compliance with the output cuts is “acceptable”, Zanganeh told reporters in Tehran on Sunday.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries should focus on “the situation with Libya and Nigeria”, he said, referring to the two countries exempted from capping production due to their internal strife, Bloomberg reported.

Nigeria will be able to participate in cuts when its output stabilizes at 1.8 million barrels a day, Oil Minister Emmanuel Kachikwu said on Friday.

“OPEC’s actions are working and compliance is acceptable overall, although there needs to be some change,” Zanganeh said, referring to OPEC members’ compliance with their pledges to pump less.

“Changes are really related to Libya and Nigeria and the 100% compliance of everyone.”

Zanganeh did not elaborate.

OPEC and other global producers, including Russia, agreed to maintain output cuts through March to end a price rout that has battered their economies since 2014. Iran was part of the deal reached last year, though it was given special permission to raise output by 90,000 barrels a day.

Libya and Nigeria were not part of the deal and have since increased production, complicating the efforts of suppliers to reduce the glut. Benchmark Brent crude has dropped by about half from its 2014 peak.

OPEC backs any action to help stabilize the oil market, and if a meeting is needed for the group to decide whether to extend the cuts that expire in March, “we’ll arrange it,” Zanganeh said.

Iran “will consider everything within the framework of our national interest and cooperation with OPEC,” he said when asked whether the country would adjust its output.

Iraq supports OPEC’s efforts to pare oil output and clear a global glut even as the group’s second-biggest producer plans to expand its own capacity to pump more, Iraqi Oil Minister Jabbar al-Luaibi said on Sunday at a news conference in Baghdad.

The country’s plan to boost capacity to 5 million barrels a day by the end of the year will not affect crude markets. Iraq will not export all of its additional output," he said.

The Arab nation pumped 4.49 million barrels a day in August, data compiled by Bloomberg show.