Tehran  (Platts)--19Sep2007

An Iranian government spokesman said Wednesday that OPEC, of which Iran
is a member, cannot be held responsible for current record oil prices because
the group is not the sole supplier of crude oil to markets and does not
regulate markets.

     "Because 30% of the world's oil comes from OPEC, there is no reason to
put pressure always on OPEC for the price of this energy commodity," said
spokesman Gholamhossein Elham.

     He said that high oil prices were good for the Middle East's oil
producers as oil provides the bulk of their foreign income. But oil exporters
receive only a fraction of the price at which oil is sold on international
markets, Elham added.

     "As an OPEC country, the price we receive is a low price and it is not
the real price of this commodity," Elham said.

     Most of the crude oil produced in the Middle East is the heavier, sour
variety that trades at a discount to global benchmarks Brent Blend and US
Light Sweet market WTI.

     OPEC ministers agreed at a meeting in Vienna September 11 to raise
production by 500,000 b/d effective November 1, as oil prices crept toward
record levels. 

     Part of the recent run-up in prices has been caused by the escalating
tension between the international community and Iran over its nuclear program
as well.

     In addition, fears of production stoppages in the US Gulf as a result of
hurricane activity, low consumer inventories and refinery outages have all
combined to push prices to record highs. US light sweet crude oil futures
settled at an all-time high of $81.51/barrel on Tuesday, having soared earlier
to $82.16/b.

     Iran is OPEC's second-largest producer, behind Saudi Arabia. It averaged
3.88 million b/d for August, a Platts survey of OPEC production shows.