(Ecofin Agency) - Oil prices fell on Wednesday after Saudi Arabia dismissed production cuts as data revealed a further rise in U.S. crude stockpiles.

Iran had stated it has no interest in limiting production following the lifting of sanctions. U.S. crude futures traded at $31.25 per barrel on Wednesday. International Brent futures fell around 1% at $32.90 per barrel.

The drops were caused by disagreement amongst the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) members to freeze or slash production and curb overproduction which has made prices fall by 70 % since mid-2014.

Saudi Arabia's oil minister Ali Al-Naimi (photo), had on Tuesday stated that an organized production reduction by exporters will not occur as not many countries will deliver. He added that the planned freeze in at January levels will call for all the major producers to decide not to add more barrels.

Russia has agreed to freeze production at January levels after it hit a record of more than 10 million bpd.

Iraq, which exported nearly 4 million bpd in January, also agreed to freeze output if others will follow suit.

“We want to see what other countries will do. Then we can decide, but we are very cooperative on this,” Iraq's oil minister Adel Abdel Mahdi said.

But Iran, had called the plan laughable.

“Some of our neighbors have increased their production to 10 million barrels a day... and now they have the nerve to say we should all freeze our production together. So they should freeze their production at 10 million barrels and we should freeze ours at 1 million barrels - this is a laughable proposal," Bijan Zanganeh had said.

About 1 to 2 million barrels of crude are presently being produced per day excessive of demand, thereby leaving storage facilities around the world overflowing, Reuters reports.

Anita Fatunji