Iran's political play with the oil giants

Recent overtures to OPEC cartel, including rival Saudi Arabia, seen as an attempt to revitalise its oil sector.

by frank

Earlier this week. Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh said that his country is ready for a dialogue with Saudi Arabia to discuss the current state of the international oil market.

Iran's willingness to negotiate with Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members over the global oil glut reflects its desire to hike prices soon in order to revamp its oil sector, which was crippled for years by international sanctions over its nuclear programme, analysts say.
Iran will load four million barrels of crude oil on tankers destined for Europe in the coming 24 hours, a senior official was quoted as saying on Saturday.
The oil was purchased by companies in Russia, France and Spain.
"Iran must preserve its share of the global oil market," Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri told the Shana news agency.
Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh said this week his country was ready for dialogue with Saudi Arabia and other members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on the oversupply of oil in the international market - and its debilitating price slump.

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Patrick Clawson, director of research at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said Zangeneh's comments indicate "how badly Iran is being hurt by the low oil price".
Since the lifting of Western economic sanctions after Iran reached a nuclear deal with world powers, the country announced it is prepared to add an extra 500,000 barrels to its estimated 2.9 million barrels a day (bpd) output.
Saudi Arabia is the biggest OPEC oil producer with foreign reserves exceeding $600bn at the end of 2015.