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)
