AKIPRESS.COM - Oil-rich nations at a Qatar summit failed to reach an agreement Sunday on a production freeze, saying officials needed "more time" to make the decision as Iran stayed home and vowed to keep pumping, NDTV reports.

The hourslong meeting in Doha, the Qatari capital, resembled a failed OPEC meeting in December that saw crude oil prices tumble on the cartel's indecision. The fact that producers couldn't agree to even freezing production at near-record January figures likely means oil prices will drop again.

Speaking to journalists after the summit, Mohammed bin Saleh al-Sada, Qatar's energy and industry minister, said the 18 countries gathered for the meeting believed "the fundamentals of the market are generally improving."

However, he largely dodged the questions about whether another special summit will be called before OPEC's next meeting in June and whether Iran had anything to do with the breakdown of the talks.

Iran decided to stay home late Saturday after saying the day before it would send an emissary to the meeting. Speaking to Iranian state television, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh said it didn't make sense to send any representative from the Islamic Republic "as we are not part of the decision to freeze output."

"We can't cooperate with them to freeze our own output, and in other words impose sanctions on ourselves," Zangeneh said.

With many international sanctions lifted under its nuclear deal with world powers, Iran began exporting oil into the European market again and is eager to claw back market share. It produces 3.2 million barrels of oil a day now, with hopes of increasing to 4 million by April 2017.