Iran favors OPEC cut of at least 2 mln bpd

"The market should find a stable condition, and given the eight to 10 percent decrease in demand and also given the oil stockpile I think a decrease of between two and 2.5 million barrels a day can bring a stable status to the market," Gholam Hossein Nozari said at a press conference in Tehran.

World oil prices have increased in recent days on expectations that OPEC will cut output at its meeting on Friday but are still around half the record highs of more than $147 a barrel seen in July.

"Given inflation and the current circumstances of the market, the current oil price is very low, and $150 should not be out of the question," Nozari said.

"If oil prices do not reach a realistic level, they will go higher (than $150)," he said.

Iran is the second largest exporter in the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting countries and its economy is heavily dependent on oil and gas income.

In Asian trade, New York's main contract, light sweet crude for November delivery, was trading firmer at $74.51 a barrel.

"In the current situation, the best price is between $80 and $90," Qatar's Energy Minister Abdallah bin Hamad al-Attiyah said at the Tehran press conference.

Attiyah also said OPEC "might be obliged to reduce production to balance supply and demand," at Friday's meeting in Vienna.

Iran's ambassador to OPEC, whose 12 member-states together pump about 40 percent of the world's oil with an official quota of 28.8 million bpd, said on Monday that the cartel may agree to cut oil production in stages.