Tehran, October 8 :

Iran, OPEC’s second largest producer, today threw its support behind moves by the

cartel for an emergency meeting to cut a longstanding output quota to shore up slumping oil prices.

“Iran supports any OPEC production cut,” said oil minister Kazem Vaziri Hameneh said today, according to the state news agency. “The output cut will be made from the approved output quota ceiling of 28 million barrels per day (bpd), because otherwise it will not have any impact on the market,” he added.

Falling oil prices have set alarm bells ringing among OPEC members and the cartel’s current president, Nigerian oil minister Edmund Daukoru, has said it is considering holding an emergency meeting to consider production cuts. The cartel has maintained an output quota of 28 million bpd since June 2005. A cut in output is seen as aimed at supporting traded oil prices, which have slumped by about 20 per cent in recent weeks owing to easing supply concerns.

“None of the OPEC members have voluntarily decreased their oil production and the members are negotiating it a cut,” said Vaziri Hameneh. Global oil prices dropped back below $60 per barrel on Friday, with speculation of the OPEC production cut.