Iran calls for OPEC to unite against potential US oil sanctions

DUBAI, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian urged OPEC members to unite against possible U.S. sanctions, after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would seek to drive Tehran's oil exports to zero.

"I believe that if OPEC members are united and work together, the U.S. would not be able to sanction and pressure one of them," Pezeshkian said at a meeting with OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al Ghais, according to Iran's state media.

Iran's oil minister Mohsen Paknejad told Al Ghais that imposing unilateral sanctions on crude producers would destabilise energy markets, the oil ministry's SHANA news outlet reported earlier on Wednesday

"Depoliticising the oil market is a vital issue for energy security.

Imposing unilateral sanctions against major oil producers and putting pressure on OPEC will destabilise oil and energy markets as well as harm consumers around the world," Paknejad said.

Trump has restored a "maximum pressure" campaign on Iran that includes efforts to drive its oil exports down to zero in order to stop Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Similar policies during Trump's first term in 2018 led to a sharp drop in Iranian oil exports to as little as 200,000 barrels per day in some months of 2020.

Iranian oil exports rebounded during U.S. President Joe Biden's administration and currently stand at around 1.5 million barrels per day, with the majority of flows going to China.

Paknejad also told state TV on Wednesday that Tehran had prepared strategies for any situation regarding U.S. sanctions.

On broader energy matters, Paknejad said the most important challenge for the global oil market in the medium to long-term was the issue of upstream investments.

"If today some major oil consumers are concerned about oil supply, this is the result of their political actions putting pressure on OPEC+ and pushing for regulatory restrictions on new upstream investments," he said.

Paknejad was elected in December as president of the OPEC Conference for 2025.

Reporting by Elwely Elwelly, Dubai Newsroom; Editing by Bernadette Baum, Gareth Jones, Peter Graff