Oil prices have lost well over half their value since late June, with benchmark US crude trading below USD 45 a barrel.
OPEC, which includes the Emirates, decided at its last meeting in November to keep production levels unchanged, despite calls from some from within the 12-member bloc to curb output to boost prices. The position of the cartel's Arab Gulf producers is that scaling back production would only erode their market share and benefit rivals, such as shale drillers in the US
"By not panicking and readjusting or cutting the output from the OPEC countries, we are telling the market and the other producers that they need to be rational. They need to be like OPEC," he said. "They need to look at growth in the international market for oil and they need to cater the additional production for that growth."
He said that if OPEC were to cut output by a million or more barrels per day, the gap in the market would have been filled by shale oil drillers "in a few months."
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"The fall in oil prices will not put Iran under strain," Rouhani said in a nationally-televised speech.
Iran has indirectly blamed the Sunni kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a regional rival, for plotting the freefall in oil prices by refusing to curb production. The Shiite powerhouse says a third of its budget this year will come from oil revenues, in comparison to last year's 50 per cent.
Iran, Venezuela and Iraq are among OPEC's most vulnerable members, as they require oil to stay well above USD 100 a barrel to cover budgetary obligations. Non-OPEC member Russia has also been deeply affected. Venezuela's president toured OPEC nations this week to drum up support for a production cut, starting in Iran before heading to Saudi Arabia and Qatar.