IFM Correspondent

October 24, 2016: It is back to square one. When things were finally looking up for the oil market with Iran agreeing to stabilise the market, Iraq played a spoilsport by refusing to join any deal from OPEC to cut production.

OPEC’s second largest producer reasoned that since the country is embroiled in a war with Islamic militants, it will not be possible for the country to join the oil-price-cut brigade. The country currently produces more than 4.7 million barrels a day, and Iraq’s output could rise higher still as the government urges international companies to boost production at its fields. “We are with OPEC policy and OPEC unity,” said Jabber Al-Luaibi, the oil minister of Iraq, adding that “but this should not be at our expense.”

OPEC has been trying to woo producers to go for a cut in more than eight years, a policy shift members agreed to last month in Algiers. Like Iraq, Russia too refused to give in writing its plans to for a production cut.

Russian energy minister Alexander Novak said they were reviewing the many scenarios to speed up the recovery of oil market.

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