Iranian minister to chair next OPEC session

May 23, 2011 | Commodities & Oilprice

Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad

The 159th OPEC session will be chaired by one of Iranian ministers in Vienna on June 8, Irna reported.

Director General of the Ministerial Affaires Department at Oil Ministry Shoja’eddin Bazargani on Monday ruled out media claims that President  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would attend the upcoming OPEC session.

Bazargani said that in his recent meeting with President Ahmadinejad, the president said that he would not attend the OPEC session and that a minister would be assigned to represent the country in the meeting as well as the EU-OPEC joint session.

Iran ’s envoy to the OPEC meeting will reportedly outline Iran’s stance as well as the interests of OPEC member states..

Iranian President recently said he had temporarily assumed the duties of the oil ministry, as the Organization prepared for a biannual meeting in Vienna.

‘For now, I myself am the caretaker of the oil ministry,’ Ahmadinejad said in a televised speech, without further elaborating on the issue.

Later, he appointed caretakers for the industry and social affairs ministries, but did not name anyone for running oil ministry which is to be merged with the energy ministry.