Iran's Return to Oil Market Leads to Further Increase in OPEC Output

The lifting of sanctions has allowed Iran to contribute to an increase in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' (OPEC) crude oil production, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its monthly oil market report, published Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — According to the report, Iran, one of OPEC's leading producers, increased its daily output by 80,000 barrels in January, while the top OPEC producer, Saudi Arabia, posted a 70,000-increase in output during the first month of 2016.

"OPEC crude oil output rose by 280 kb/d in January to 32.63 mb/d as a sanctions-free Iran, Saudi Arabia and Iraq all turned up the taps," the report reads.

The European Union, the United Nations, and partially the United States lifted their sanctions against the Islamic Republic after the International Atomic Energy Agency verified Tehran’s compliance with a nuclear agreement reached last July. The lifting of sanctions allowed Iranian oil producers to reenter the global market.

The announcement came amid oversupply in the global oil market, with OPEC refusing to cut its daily output.

Since the collapse in oil prices in the first half of January, officials from OPEC member states and non-OPEC countries have been considering holding a meeting to address the declining oil prices, which have caused significant financial problems for some states.

According to the report, the chances that OPEC and non-OPEC oil producing states would coordinate output cuts is very low.