London (AFP)

Iran, hit by US sanctions that prevent it from selling its oil abroad and shaken last month by a wave of protests, still retains its voice in OPEC despite falling production free.

According to the latest monthly report from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) released in mid-November, Iran produced 2.192 million barrels of crude oil per day (mbd) in the third quarter of 2019, a decline of more than 40% compared to its production level of the year 2017.

This decline, of the order of 1.6 mbd, is greater than the limit imposed by most member countries of OPEC + - Iran is exempted - since their agreement of December 2018 to support the courses crude, an agreement renewed in July at the previous summit, which will be discussed Thursday and Friday in Vienna.

"This situation is experienced as an injustice by Iran because the (other) members of OPEC take advantage of this sudden drop in the supply of Iran" to mitigate their own production limits and maintain their market share, said Bjarne Schieldrop, analyst of the SEB Financial Services Group interviewed by AFP.

With demand slowing, it will be difficult for Iran to regain the lost volume in the global market without putting pressure on prices.

- 'Very low prices' -

Iraq, its neighbor and rival, did not hesitate to occupy part of the vacant place, exceeding its own quotas despite the recriminations of the leader and good student of OPEC, Arabia Arabia.

If US sanctions had not been put in place, "prices would be very low today" because of abundant global supply and slowing global growth, Schieldrop added.

The Islamic Republic, however, retains its legitimacy as a founding member and a strong voice in the cartel.

She had made it heard during the previous summit when the Iranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Namdar Zanganeh denounced the "unilateral nature" of the agreement on a limitation of production, pointing without naming them Russia and Saudi Arabia .

The rivalry between Ryad and Tehran is not new, but it has entered a dangerous phase in recent months with attacks on tankers and maritime incidents, as well as unprecedented raids on Saudi oil installations of the first order.

It is likely, however, that at the next summit, Iran will support, along with Saudi Arabia and other cartel members, a consensus on an extension of the oil production restraint agreement.

But the Islamic Republic would be reluctant to a further cut because a tighter shackle would hinder it in the event that the country, returned to the international game, would regain a level of production comparable to that before the sanctions.

The US vice is still tight for the moment: since the withdrawal of the United States in May 2018 from the international agreement on the Iranian nuclear, the administration of Donald Trump exerts "an extremely strong pressure" against Iran that it accuses to seek to acquire the atomic weapon and to have a "destabilizing" influence in the region, according to Tamas Varga, analyst of PVM questioned by AFP.

For its part, Tehran accuses "the Americans" of waging a "conspiracy" against him, after several days of demonstrations and unrest triggered on November 15 by a sharp rise in the price of gasoline in this country shaken by an economic crisis .

© 2019 AFP