TEHRAN, May 24 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Petroleum Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said Wednesday that extending earlier output cut agreement of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) would be the key topic for discussions in the upcoming meeting of the organization in Austrian capital Vienna, Press TV reported.
No change is expected in the production freeze of the OPEC that was agreed by its members last year, Zanganeh was quoted as saying.
A consensus has already been reached by OPEC and non-OPEC producers to extend the cuts, he said, stressing that the agreement reached last year could be extended by six or even nine months.
In April, Zanganeh said that Iran would support earlier decision by the OPEC to extend oil output freeze agreement.
"If majority of OPEC and non-OPEC states agree to extend the oil freeze deal, Iran will also get along," he said.
Positive signals had been received for extending oil freeze agreement for the second half of 2017 and Iran would accompany other member-states of OPEC if they support the extension, he said.
In their meeting last November, OPEC members unanimously agreed on the oil price of 60 U.S. dollars per barrel, hence they agreed to cut output by 1.2 million bpd down to 32.5 million bpd for the first six months of 2017.
Non-OPEC members including Russia, Oman and Mexico also agreed to cut 558,000 bpd off their production.
On Wednesday, Zanganeh rejected speculations that Saudi Arabia might try to undermine the output cut agreement. He emphasized that Riyadh wanted oil prices to rise.
