Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh said on Monday that the price for each barrel of oil is pegged at 40 dollars in the budget bill for the next Iranian fiscal year of 1395 (2016-17).
Zangeneh told IRNA that the price suggested for each barrel of oil told be sold next year will depend on fluctuations in the market.
To a question on further decline in price of oil and selling it for less than 40 dollars a barrel, he said, “We cannot send bad signals to the market before hand; there had been efforts to suggest in the budget the closest and most possible price for oil, though the market is usually in fluctuations.”
He noted that in the first half of the year, Iranian oil was sold for 54 dollars a barrel on the average and the exports was a little a bit higher than the figure forecast in the budget.
He said government has no plan to liberalize the price for oil derivatives.
Elsewhere in the interview, Zangeneh said OPEC emergency meeting, to be held due to fall in the prices, would be harmful to the market before holding emergency session, leading to further decline in the prices.
