IEA decision to release oil stocks

Iran condemned yesterday a decision by oil consumer nations to release strategic crude stocks as politically motivated interference in the market that would not have a sustained impact on prices. "The measure by the International Energy Agency in consuming their oil stockpile is meddling in the natural oil market trend and the drop in oil prices will not be sustainable," Iran's Opec governor Mohammad Ali Khatibi was quoted as saying by the Oil Ministry website SHANA. The 28-member IEA said on Thursday it would release 60 million barrels a day over an initial 30 days to fill the gap created by the disruption to Libya's output. Earlier this month, Opec failed to reach consensus to increase production, which consumer countries wanted and leading exporter Saudi Arabia had pushed for, but which other producers, including Iran, opposed. After the Opec meeting, Saudi Arabia said it would unilaterally increase output to meet the needs of the market. Iran said the move was politically motivated as Saudi Arabia was under western pressure. "After the United States and Europe failed to raise the organisation's output in the recent Opec meeting, they used their utmost efforts to lower the global oil price. The consumption of stocks by the IEA to compensate for the oil shortage will push down prices in an artificial way," Khatibi said.. From / Gulf News