Iran’s media have hailed what is seen at home as the country’s “victory” in multiple-month negotiations with rivals and allies at the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) over a proposed plan to reduce production and boost the prices.
The negotiations culminated in a deal in Vienna on Wednesday for most producers to reduce their production by a collective of by 1.2 million barrels per day (mb/d) but exempted Iran from any production cuts – what the country had insisted on since Saudi Arabia raised the OPEC production cut proposal earlier this year.
OPEC – in its first production deal in eight years - even agreed to allow Iran to increase its crude oil production by 90,000 barrels per day (bpd) from January 2016 – when the deal becomes effective.
“This was the biggest achievement of the 171st ministerial meeting of OPEC for Iran and a result of the powerful diplomacy of the country’s Petroleum Minister [Bijan Zanganeh] in the post-sanctions environment,” wrote the Persian-language newspaper Iran in a front page editorial.
In an article titled “Iran’s JCPOA in Vienna”, the Persian-language newspaper Arman-e Emrooz said the exemption given to Iran was the triumph of the country’s oil diplomacy and a key move to revive its position in oil markets.
The JCPOA – the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – was achieved between Iran and the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany last summer. It envisaged the removal of a series of economic sanctions against Iran in return for steps by the country to restrict certain aspects of its nuclear energy activities. The JCPOA is praised in Tehran as a major diplomatic breakthrough by the administration of President Hassan Rouhani to end years of sanctions against the country.
Arman-e Emrooz emphasized that the purpose of the Saudi proposed production cut plan was to stop Iran’s return to oil markets after the removal of the sanctions.
“Throughout the years that Iran was under the sanctions, most of Iran’s share of oil markets was seized by Saudi Arabia,” it wrote in its editorial. “If any attempt should be taken to remove the oil market glut, it is Riyadh that needs to reduce its production instead of raising the oil freeze plan to portray Iran as responsible for the falling oil prices.”