US Pressuring Riyadh to Push Down Oil Prices: Iran
Hossein Kazempour Ardebili, Iran’s OPEC Governor, in response to the recent joint statement of Saudi Arabia and Russian’s oil minister and the meeting between Saudi Prince and Putin in order to influence OPEC decisions, stated: “[The] USA is also putting a lot of pressure on Saudi Arabia to reduce oil prices.”
He also mentioned recent actions by the US, and added: “[The] United States has also introduced an act called NOPEC in order to blackmail OPEC which the members will stand against it.”
Kazempour Ardebili in sight of Saudi goals also added: “Saudi Arabia is trying to win points with Russia in order to align them with their goals which wouldn’t help them. Considering the fact that the decision to reduce production was between 24 countries and it stands till the end of 2018. In my opinion members of this agreement don’t want to leave it. And that is the only way for it to survive. We should wait till the OPEC meeting to see what happens.”
The No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act (NOPEC) was a U.S. Congressional bill, never enacted, known as H.R. 2264 (in 2007) and then as part of H.R. 6074 (in 2008).
NOPEC was designed to remove the state immunity shield and to allow the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), and its national oil companies to be sued under U.S. antitrust law for anti-competitive attempts to limit the world’s supply of petroleum and the consequent impact on oil prices. Despite popular sentiment against OPEC, legislative proposals to limit the organization’s sovereign immunity have so far been unsuccessful. “Varied forms of a NOPEC bill have been introduced some 16 times since 2000, only to be vehemently resisted by the oil industry.”
