Iran called for OPEC on Saturday to hold an extraordinary meeting to rein in output going over its agreed total quota because oil prices have dipped to a "critical level" under $100 a barrel.

Iran called for OPEC on Saturday to hold an extraordinary meeting to rein in output going over its agreed total quota because oil prices have dipped to a "critical level" under $100 a barrel.

"We have asked the secretary general to set up an extraordinary meeting as prices have become irrational," Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi was quoted as saying on his ministry's official news website Shana.

He stressed that the last Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries meeting, on June 14, had decided the cartel's overall quota would be 30 million barrels but "members' production has reached 33 million barrels a day."

OPEC had agreed that "when the prices go below $100 a barrel, they have reached a critical level," and therefore an extraordinary meeting was needed before the next scheduled OPEC meeting in December, he said.