TEHRAN, June 21 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Petroleum Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh on Wednesday blamed the United States for the recent plunge in global crude prices, Press TV reported.
The United States has increased its oil production by 900,000 barrels per day, Zanganeh said, adding that this is beyond what the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) had estimated.
He was discussing the role of the United States in the decline of prices with the OPEC member states, however, it would be difficult for the member states to take collective action on such issues, Zanganeh said.
The Iranian minister spoke highly of OPEC's performance in arriving at a consensus to cut output and help prop up prices.
In their meeting last November, OPEC members unanimously agreed on the oil price of 60 U.S. dollars per barrel, hence they agreed to cut output by 1.2 million bpd down to 32.5 million bpd for the first six months of 2017.
Non-OPEC members including Russia, Oman and Mexico also agreed to cut 558,000 bpd off their production.
According to Finacial Tribune, oil prices fell to seven-month lows on Tuesday after news of increases in supply.
Benchmark Brent dropped 1.06 U.S. dollars to a low of 45.85 dollars a barrel, its weakest since Nov. 18, just before OPEC and other producers agreed to cut output.
Brent was traded around 46.11 dollars per barrel, down 80 cents. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 98 cents to a low of 43.22 dollar a barrel, its lowest since Nov. 14.
Zanganeh has expressed the hope that OPEC would agree on extending earlier output cut in the upcoming meeting.
