Iran says international crude oil prices will not rise with the onset of the cold season due to the continuing global economic slump, state broadcaster IRIB quoted an official on Saturday as saying. "Due to the existing economic crisis, it is predicted that this year no significant changes happen in the oil price by the onset of the cold season," said Iran's Opec governor Mohammad Ali Khatibi.
Khatibi said there were indications that lingering financial crisis in some Western countries would lead to a drop in oil demand. "The drop in demand in recent weeks has been to the extent that some non-Opec producing countries were compelled to lower their output in proportion to the drop in demand," Khatibi said. Iran, a leading price hawk inside Opec, holds the rotating presidency of the group. At the last Opec meeting, on Jun. 8, it successfully opposed a push led by Saudi Arabia to raise output quotas, leading the Saudis to increase production unilaterally, a move strongly criticised by Tehran.
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