Iran oil surcharge

Press, 12 April 1979, Page 6

Iran oil surcharge

iN’ZPA-Reuter Teheran! ■ Iran is planning io add a . surcharge of SUSI.BO a barI rel to the price of its oil, i .■according to industry ■sources. Analysts said ■yesterday there was no sign j ! that nations with lowerI priced oil would follow ' ; Iran’s example. E The Iranian surcharge, expected to be announced ' ) today, is higher than the 1 i SUSI.2O surcharge adopted in recent weeks by several j : members of the Organisation I •of Petroleum Exporting . i Countries. However, it is! 'well under the SUS 4 pre-i mium imposed by some of; the cartel’s members. Last month, O.P.E.C. ap-i [ | proved a 9 per cent in the basic price of its I. crude oil, to 5U514.54 a bar- ‘ rel, and allowed its 13 mem- , ber nations to impose sur- j charges above that price as j they felt market conditions warranted. Most O.P.E.C. ( nations have tacked on surcharges ranging from 60c a t I barrel to SUS 4 a barrel. j • Because Iran's ail is of.j, ‘jslightly better quality than!. !the crude used as O.P.E.C.’sji '(benchmark, the effect of the J] (surcharge will be to raise I, the price of Iranian oil from I : 5U514.77 a barrel to j 1 5U516.57 a barrel. It is at present unclear ; 1 what effect, if any, that • ■ might have on consumers. I The O.P.E.C. increase, and • the surcharges announced in , ■the last couple of weeks, I had been expected to add a : total of about 3c a gallon to ' i petrol and oil prices in the (United States. •, ( No-one is sure how much ■ soil Iran is contributing top (the world supply. j Iranian oil-fields, which] 1 had produced almost s.7M|> (barrels of crude a day, were] (virtually closed down by the revolution and are just now : coming back into production. : Oil-industry sources say , that Iranian production may now be as high as 4M! bar- 1 rels a day, the level the new 1 Government said would be the maximum output. That 1 would be about 8 per cent ’ of the oil produced daily by ; the non-communist world. I