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Iran Elected to OPEC Presidency

   VOA News 14 October 2010
   Iran's  Minister  of  Petroleum  Masoud  Mir-Kazemi,  left,  speaks to
   journalists  prior  to the start of the meeting of the Organization of
   the  Petroleum  Exporting  Countries  at their headquarters in Vienna,
   Austria, 14 Oct 2010

Photo: AP

   Iran's  Minister  of  Petroleum  Masoud  Mir-Kazemi,  left,  speaks to
   journalists  prior  to the start of the meeting of the Organization of
   the  Petroleum  Exporting  Countries  at their headquarters in Vienna,
   Austria, 14 Oct 2010

   For  the  first  time  in  36  years,  Iran  will  assume the rotating
   presidency  of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.  It
   takes  effect  next  year.  The appointment was announced Thursday at
   the start of this week's OPEC meeting in Vienna.
   Iran's  oil ministry's official website, SHANA, announced that Iranian
   Oil Minister Masoud Mirkazemi will become the elected president of the
   12-member oil cartel.  Iran is OPEC's second-largest oil producer and
   was unanimously elected during the 157th session of OPEC's ministerial
   meeting.
   OPEC,  which provides 35 percent of global oil demand, also reached an
   agreement  on its oil production target.  The cartel said Thursday it
   would make "no changes" to its official oil production target of 24.84
   million barrels a day.
   OPEC  comprises  Algeria,  Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya,
   Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Venezuela.

   Some information for this report was provided by AFP.

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