OPEC is due to meet in June, where the Iran question will no doubt be raised. But oil and gas leaders are taking a cautious approach, with Kuwait's oil minister Khaled Al Fadhel noting that a decision would be taken only after a review of oil prices.

Asked whether Iran’s oil could be removed from the market, Mr. Barkindo said: “No repetition is needed. Eliminating Iran from the oil market is impossible.”

Operators of Belarus, Ukrainian, Hungarian and Slovakian sections of troubled Druzhba network have agreed on technical measures to clean contaminated oil from part of the system and expect normal quality oil from Russia to start entering Belarus and Urkaine in the coming days, Ukrainian pipeline operator Ukrtransnafta said Tuesday.

Oil prices fell on Monday, extending a slump from Friday that ended weeks of rallying, after President Donald Trump demanded that producer club OPEC raise output to soften the impact of U.S. sanctions against Iran.

Poland, Germany, Ukraine and some other countries suspended imports of Russian oil via the Druzhba pipeline this week due to the contamination. Russia said it plans to restore the pipeline to Europe to stability in two weeks.

China's crude oil imports from Iran, the March volume rose 6.2% from February on a barrels-per-day basis, despite dropping by a quarter from the same month of last year.

"Not extending the oil waivers of some countries is another side of the US measures against Iran. But if Iran's oil is fully sanctioned, oil price will go higher than $100 per barrel,"

BHGE - U.S. Rig Count is down 21 rigs from last week to 991, with oil rigs down 20 to 805, gas rigs down 1 to 186, and miscellaneous rigs unchanged at 0. Canada Rig Count is down 3 rigs from last week to 63, with oil rigs unchanged at 19 and gas rigs down 3 to 44.

Oil prices dipped on Friday on expectations that producer club OPEC will soon raise output to make up for a decline in exports from Iran following a hardening of sanctions on Tehran by the United States.

Crude oil prices are expected to average $66 a barrel in 2019 and $65 a barrel in 2020,