Iran to raise oil output level to 4mn barrels per day
Iran’s Petroleum Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh has announced Tehran’s plan to increase the level of Iranian oil production to four million barrels per day (bpd).
Zangeneh told Iranian media outlets on Wednesday that the country's crude output would reach 4mn/bpd by March 2017.
He said Iran’s annual budget predicts the amount of oil export to be around 2,250,000 bpd.
“This means our production this [Iranian calendar] year (started March 20) will reach four million barrels per day."
The oil minister said the crude output experienced a surge on the heels of the removal of anti-Iran sanctions in January under a nuclear agreement reached between Tehran and the permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany (P5+1) last July.
The economic restrictions imposed on Iran in early 2012 over its nuclear program had decreased Iranian oil exports from a peak of 2.5 million bpd before 2011 to just over one million in recent years.
“Iran's oil export has increased since the lifting of sanctions ... for 10 months since March 2016, Iran's average monthly oil export was around 1,350,000 bpd,” Zangeneh was quoted as saying.
He added that Iran's crude exports will top 2 million bpd in the two Iranian calendar months ending on April 19.
Meanwhile, members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will meet with non-OPEC producers in the Qatari capital, Doha, on April 17 to discuss a possible oil output freeze to prop up prices, according to Reuters.
The Doha talks are expected to widen February's initial output freeze deal by Qatar, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and non-OPEC member Russia.
Iranian officials have expressed Tehran's determination to continue increasing its oil production and exports until it regains its pre-sanction market position.
Zangeneh said last month Iran would join oil production freeze discussions after its own production reached four million bpd, the Students News Agency (ISNA) reported.
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