Oil has come under pressure after Iran insisted it would pump more than a million barrels a day extra before it would consider joining other producers� efforts to curb a supply glut.

Tehran was only freed from the sanctions regime last year, allowing Iranian oil onto global markets at a time when economic growth is faltering and oil cartel Opec has been driving down the price to take on US shale producers.

Crude prices have bounced �back from their January lows of $27, which was the lowest for 12 years, but remain a fraction of the highs above $115 a barrel seen as recently as June 2014.

But prices slipped two thirds of a cent to $39.73 a barrel as reports quoted Iran�s oil minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh saying that the country could lift oil production by as much as a third to four million barrels a day.

Figures showed Saudi Arabia kept its crude oil production steady in February, pumping 10.22 million barrels per day after the top oil exporter struck a preliminary deal with other producers to freeze output.

The Saudis, along with Russia, Qatar and Venezuela, said last month they would hold output at January levels if other oil-producing nations agreed to join the first global oil pact in 15 years.

By Evening Standard