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Trump Request for Saudi Oil Output Rise Amounts to Call for Exiting OPEC - Iran

TEHRAN (Sputnik) - US President Donald Trump’s request for Saudi Arabia to step up its oil output to 2 million barrels per day to offset the rising oil prices may be seen as a call for the kingdom to withdraw from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its agreements, Iran’s OPEC governor Hossein Kazempour Ardebili said Saturday.
Sputnik

“Putting aside the fact that Saudi Arabia has no such capacity to bolster its crude output, this demand could be inferred as an order for the kingdom to walk out of OPEC,” Ardebili said, as quoted by the Shana news agency.

Earlier in the day, Trump wrote on Twitter that he had spoken to the Saudi king about the need to increase Saudi Arabia's daily oil production to 2 million barrels due to the unstable situation in Iran and Venezuela, stressing that King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud agreed with the proposal.

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Meanwhile, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) did not mention any agreements regarding an increase in daily oil output while reporting about the telephone conversation between Trump and King Salman.

Last week, OPEC countries and other major oil producers that participate in the 2016 Vienna cut deal agreed during a meeting in the Austrian capital to increase production to 1 million barrels per day, that is the volume of the countries' over-compliance with the agreement.

READ MORE: Iran Looks Into Options to Evade US Sanctions, Ensure Steady Oil Export

OPEC countries and other major oil producers initially reached an agreement at the end of 2016 to reduce oil output by 1.8 million barrels per day compared to October 2016. The deal, aimed at boosting oil prices, was prolonged twice, with the last extension set to last until the end of 2018.

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