Mr Rostam Qasemi oil minister of Iran has urged Opec's secretary general to call for an extraordinary meeting amid falling oil prices.

Mr Qasemi said that in 161st meeting of OPEC it was agreed if oil prices fall below USD 100 per barrel it means that prices are in crisis, so we have urged secretary general .to make preparations for holding an emergency meeting.

International crude benchmarks Brent and US oil futures posted their biggest quarterly declines on Friday since the fourth quarter of 2008 due to weak demand, ample supply and economic worries.

However prices rebounded later on Friday on a deal by European leaders to shore up euro zone banks. Brent crude oil futures rose more than USD 6 per barrel to near USD 98 while US crude jumped by more than USD 7 to settle just below USD 85 per barrel.

Mr Qasemi warned that if OPEC members failed to comply with the agreed production ceiling of 30 million barrels per day this would disrupt balance in the oil market. If OPEC members don't observe agreed production ceiling it will be followed by disorder in oil markets.

Mr Hussain al Shahristani deputy PM of Iraq said that OPEC needed to cut its supply, while Venezuela's Energy Minister Mr Rafael Ramirez also called for an extraordinary meeting in the Q3 of this year if global crude prices remain low.

In its last meeting in mid June, OPEC agreed to adhere to the collective limit implying 1.6 million barrels per day cut from the actual supply for 12 members of 31.5 million. To do that, Saudi Arabia would need to cut back sharply.

But Saudi Arabia is showing no sign yet of changing its policy of pumping near its highest rate in decades to support global economic growth, despite a fall in crude prices below USD 90 per barrel for the first time in 18 months.

Source - Reuters

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