Opec meeting could add to market woes, Iran warns

Iran's oil minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh says an emergency Opec meeting will only be justified if all of the group's 13 members were in agreement on how to deal with the collapse in oil prices to 12-year lows. But given the differences currently existing among some of the group's members, Zanganeh sees little point in pushing for a meeting now.

Holding a meeting in the current circumstances could actually hurt the oil market further, according to Zanganeh, particularly if Opec members fail to take action in support of oil prices.

Brent and WTI are trading at below $33/bl, down more than 70pc since mid-2014.

"There should be a clear intention to make a decision in such a meeting," Zanganeh said. "Otherwise holding such a meeting could ultimately impact world oil markets in a negative way."

"The important thing is that there must be an intention for change. But we have not yet gotten such a signal."

These comments follow closely on renewed calls by Nigerian oil minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu while in Davos for the World Economic Forum last week, for both an emergency meeting and increased co-operation between Opec and non-Opec producers.

There is "a lot of energy around trying to meet earlier," Kachikwu told a panel in Davos. "Do we just sit back and watch? Or do we put more efforts into talking to countries like Russia to try to get some consensus of what we need to be doing?"

Kachikwu said earlier this month that a cut by Opec members alone would do little to redress the current market imbalance, as "we are just 30-35pc of the world's production".