Vienna - A global glut of oil will rise further next year, Iran's oil minister said on Wednesday on the eve of Opec's meeting to decide on whether to cut its output.
"All the experts in the markets believe that we have an oversupply on the market and next year we will have more oversupply," Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh told reporters.
But Zanganeh said it was not solely up to the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries to tackle the oversupply which is sending crude prices crashing to four-year low points.
"To deal with this situation we need to have to have a contribution from non-Opec producers for managing the market," he told reporters on arrival in Vienna, where the cartel is headquartered.
Thursday's meeting of Opec is the most significant in recent years after crude futures have sunk by more than 30% since June on plentiful oil supplies, a strong dollar and worries about stalling energy demand in a weak global economy.
The cartel which pumps out about one-third of the world's oil is under pressure from its poorer members like Venezuela and Ecuador to cut output after tumbling prices have slashed their precious revenues.