TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh blamed a recent rise in the US oil production for the falling crude prices in the international markets.

The US increased its oil production by 900,000 barrels per day; this was way beyond what the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) had estimated," Zangeneh said.

OPEC in a meeting in May agreed to extend until March 2018 an oil output cut deal that was sealed last year to help shore up prices.

The cuts would lower the collective production of producers by 1.8 million barrels per day (mb/d).

A dozen non-members led by top oil producer Russia, which reduced output in tandem with OPEC, would also join the scheme.

OPEC members Nigeria and Libya would still be excluded from cuts as their output remained curbed by unrest.

Iran would also be allowed to keep its oil production by 3.8 mb/d over the next nine months.  The country has been exempted from the existing six-month oil output cut deal.