Nations using oil as a weapon could collapse OPEC: Iran

TEHRAN (Reuters): Any country using oil as a weapon could cause the collapse of oil producer group OPEC, Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said on Wednesday, according to SHANA, the news outlet of the oil ministry.

Oil prices hit their highest since November in recent days after Washington said all waivers for those importing sanctions-hit Iranian oil would end this week, pressuring importers to stop buying from Tehran and further tightening global supply.

“Those who use oil as a weapon against two founding members of OPEC are disturbing the unity of OPEC and creating the death and collapse of OPEC and the responsibility for that is with them,” Zanganeh said in a speech at an oil and gas conference in Tehran.

The White House said after its Iran move it was working with Saudi Arabia and the UAE to ensure oil markets were “adequately supplied”, but traders worry about tight supplies.

The US demanded that buyers of Iranian oil stop purchases by May 1 or face sanctions, ending six months of waivers that had allowed Iran’s eight biggest customers, most of them in Asia, to import limited volumes.

America will not, however, be able to bring Iran’s oil exports to zero and two of the Islamic Republic’s neighbours are exaggerating their oil production capacity, Zanganeh said, according to the Mehr news agency.