According to new dates posted on the website of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, the bloc has agreed to move its next meeting to July 1, followed by a meeting with non-OPEC allies on July 2.
OPEC and allies were originally planning to meet on June 25-26, and have been debating for the past month on a new date for their upcoming meeting to discuss oil output policy.
This is while Iranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zanganeh said on Monday that he would only agree with the rescheduling to July 10, 11 or 12, saying that he would be unable to attend the meeting on July 3 and 4 because of busy schedule.
Zanganeh had said at a meeting with his Russian counterpart Alexander Novak on Monday that both Iran and Russia were targeted by the sanctions in various sectors of their oil industry, adding, “The current market conditions are not in the best interest of anyone and they should be taken care of and I will outline these issues at the upcoming OPEC meeting.”
“The oil market is in a volatile, fragile and unstable state, and we ought to be careful about the market conditions; some of our neighbors in the region are also disturbing the market, which would not benefit anyone in the short or long term,” he added.