Oil prices could jump to $140 a barrel due to the U.S. sanctions against Iran and Venezuela, Iran’s OPEC governor Hossein Kazempour Ardebili told Reuters on Friday. The Iranian official also criticized a reported request that the United States made of Saudi Arabia to help stabilize oil prices in case the sanctions against Iran drives oil prices up. A day before U.S. President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal, a senior official of the Trump Administration phoned Saudi Arabia to ask it to help keep oil prices stable should the U.S. decision on Iran disrupt oil supply, Reuters reported yesterday. Earlier this week, Bloomberg reported that the United States had quietly asked Saudi Arabia and several other OPEC nations to raise oil production by some 1 million bpd . Commenting on the U.S. request to Saudi Arabia, Iran’s Kazempour told Reuters: “It’s crazy […]