Oligopoly: Saudi among OPEC quota ‘violators’

Tehran had officially protested that Saudia is saturating market, under pressure from the US, EU.

TEHRAN: Sanctions-hit Iran on Saturday blasted fellow Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) members Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates as oil quota “violators”, accusing them of depressing global crude prices by over-pumping. Iran’s OPEC representative, Mohammad Ali Khatibi, said that Tehran had officially protested to the cartel that Saudi Arabia was saturating the market, under pressure from the US and the European Union, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency. Iran is the second-biggest producer in the OPEC after Saudi Arabia. In the first quarter, Saudi output swelled by 250,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 9.9 million bpd from a year earlier.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 10^th, 2012.