OPEC Spat Over Production Data Grows as Iran Rejects Estimates
- Iran joins Iraq, Venezuela in disputing OPEC’s estimates
- Discord over data makes it harder to complete deal on Nov. 30
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OPEC’s struggle with the first step of its new production deal -- agreeing on how much its members are pumping -- deepened as Iran became the third nation to openly question the organization’s data.
Output estimates compiled by OPEC’s Vienna-based secretariat are “not acceptable,” Ali Kardor, managing director of National Iranian Oil Co., said Monday in Tehran. Iran is pumping 3.89 million barrels a day, Kardor said, or about 300,000 a day more than OPEC estimated the country produced last month. Iraq and Venezuela have already criticized the data, which OPEC compiles from “secondary sources” such as news agencies.