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Iran expects OPEC emergency meeting if crude prices fall below 100 USD

16 April 2013 00:11 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. An Iranian oil ministry official said Monday that Iran will call on OPEC to hold an emergency meeting if the crude prices slump below 100 U.S. dollars a barrel, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

"If that happens, Iran's oil minister will have a phone conservation with the OPEC president, urging him to hold an extraordinary meeting," said the official, who was not named.

On Sunday, Iran's Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said that Iran hoped the crude prices would stay above 100 dollars per barrel, noting "an oil price below 100 dollars is not reasonable," according to Press TV.

The weekly OPEC basket price dropped to 102.28 dollars per barrel last week, hitting the lowest point in 17 weeks, the Vienna- based cartel said Monday.

This is the second consecutive week of decrease in the OPEC basket price, which marked a sharp fall from 114.5 dollars in mid- February.

OPEC has revised down its forecast of 2013 world oil demand growth due to the weakness of the OECD countries' oil consumption, according to its latest monthly report issued last week.