VIENNA (Reuters) - Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agreed to stick by its policy of unconstrained output for another six months on Friday, setting aside warnings of a second lurch lower in prices as some members such as Iran look to ramp up exports.

Concluding a meeting with no apparent dissent, Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries had rolled over its current output ceiling, renewing support for the shock market treatment it doled out late last year when Saudi Arabia, the world’s top supplier, said it would no longer cut output to keep prices high.

The group will meet again on Dec. 4, Naimi said.

With oil prices having rebounded by more than a third after hitting a six-year low of $45 a barrel in January, officials meeting in Vienna saw little reason to tinker with a strategy that seems to have resurrected moribund growth in world oil consumption and put a damper on the U.S. shale boom.

Naimi, emerging from the talks, said he was happy with the decision. He told reporters ahead of the meeting that he was confident production from marginal fields would fall even at current prices.

“The decision taken in November was the right one,” United Arab Emirates energy minister Suhail bin Mohammed al-Mazroui said earlier, referring to OPEC’s previous meeting. “It will take time for the markets to rebalance.”

Friday’s decision defers discussion of several tricky questions set to arise in the coming months as members such as Iran and Libya prepare to reopen the taps after years of diminished production.


**** $75 is fair crude price: Zanganeh

Meanwhile, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said on Friday that most members of OPEC agree that $75 a barrel is a “fair” oil price.

“I think most of the OPEC members believe that a price around $75 is a fair price for both sides and is working well,” Zanganeh told reporters as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) prepared to meet in Vienna.

Ministers from Iraq, Angola and Venezuela have said this week that they reckon $75 to $80 is equitable.

Zanganeh also said Iran was “not satisfied” with current oil prices. Brent crude has rebounded by as much as $20 a barrel after hitting a six-year low of $45 in January, but prices have fallen more than 5 percent this week. July futures were trading at just under $62 a barrel on Friday.

**** End of sanctions could lift Iran oil output by 1m bpd

Iran’s oil production could be lifted by one million barrels per day (bpd) within half a year of Western sanctions being lifted, Zanganeh said.

Zanganeh’s forecast, delivered before a looming June 30 deadline to finalize Iran’s historic nuclear power deal with world powers, was revealed at a two-day OPEC seminar in Vienna.

Questioned about the Islamic republic’s oil output, he told delegates: “We believe that immediately, or after one month of lifting the sanctions, (we will achieve) half a million (extra) barrels per day, and after 6-7 months we will achieve one million barrels.”

“Iran, because of the sanctions and limitations, has reduced production and exports.”

Iran currently exports 1.3 million bpd, against 2.2 million bpd before the sanctions were imposed about one decade ago.

“It’s fair we return to the level of the production (which Iran had) before the sanctions,” Zanganeh added.

“OPEC members countries will consider the return of Iran to the market, and it will not have a negative impact on the market,” he said amid ongoing concern about global oversupply which sparked the recent oil price slump.


**** Oil prices won’t fall when Tehran reenters world market

Iranian Oil Minister also told CNBC that he did not think oil prices would slump when his country’s oil re-enters the markets.

Speaking from the annual Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) conference in Vienna, Zanganeh said Iran’s main concern was market share.

“I don’t believe that we will witness a new fall in the oil price in the market, but the main issue for Iran I should emphasis is to achieve the traditional market share of Iran in the oil market,” he told CNBC.

Tehran has informed OPEC that it was prepared to reenter the oil market once Western sanctions were lifted against the country, Zangeneh said ahead of the OPEC meeting in Vienna.

“We don’t need permission from OPEC to return to the market. This is our right, we were limited by sanctions and this is completely normal if we return to the market with the ceiling we had before [the sanctions were imposed].”

“We will begin increasing production immediately after the sanctions are lifted. I sent a letter to the OPEC countries so that they are ready and review our request to return Iranian oil to the market,” he said.

(Source: agencies)

CAP: Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh says most members of OPEC agree that $75 a barrel is a “fair” oil price