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Iran will not cut oil output until sanctions are lifted — minister

Iran will not reduce its oil production output in accordance with the agreement reached in the OPEC+ format

© AP Photo/Hasan Jamali

VIENNA, December 6. /TASS/. Iran will not reduce its oil production output in accordance with the agreement reached in the OPEC+ format, Minister of Petroleum Bijan Namdar Zangeneh told reporters after the session of the OPEC-Non-OPEC Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) in Vienna.

Read also

US Senate passes bill to extend Iran sanctions

"We should be excluded from any decision on output quotas in the future until sanctions are lifted," Zangeneh said.

The minister did not specify the Iran's current level of production as he said it might serve as a pretext for the US to extert pressure on Tehran. "If they [the US] want to exert pressure on Iran through OPEC, this is unprofessional, and I want to add that OPEC is not part of the US Department of Energy, so it does not need instructions from the US on what to do," he added.

The JMMC meeting was held in Vienna on December 5. The participants agreed to recommend OPEC members to cut output in the first half of 2019. Production will be cut by around 1 mln barrels per day. Ministers of OPEC countries will consider the recommendation on Thursday, non-OPEC states - on Friday.

The US imposed sanctions on Iran on 5 November 2018.

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