Haitham al-Ghais and Iran’s new ambassador to the UN office in Vienna, Reza Najafi, held a meeting in Austria on Saturday.

Ghais praised Iran for its constructive role and support for OPEC, hailed the course of cooperation between the two sides, and voiced OPEC’s readiness for closer interaction with Tehran.

The two officials also discussed the international economic challenges affecting the global oil market, and stressed the need for the OPEC member states to adopt common policies and make the necessary arrangements to rise to those challenges and stabilize the oil market.

The data shows that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) pumped 26.74 million barrels per day of oil in February, up 170,000 bpd from January's revised total, with Iran and Nigeria posting the largest gains.

OPEC's biggest rise, of 80,000 bpd, came from Iran, with output of 3.3 million bpd.