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