News / Energy

Minister: Iran's oil production has reached pre-sanction levels

Friday, 01 April 2022 10:18 AM [ Last Update: Friday, 01 April 2022 10:28 AM ]

A gas flare on an oil production platform is seen alongside an Iranian flag in the Persian Gulf, on July 25, 2005. (File photo by Reuters)

Minister of Petroleum Javad Owji says Iran’s oil production has reached pre-sanction levels, as the country teams up with new customers to export its oil in defiance of the most draconian sanctions imposed by the United States.

Finding new customers and markets, using different methods in oil contracts, and making use of highly-qualified experts in the field are among the reasons behind the surge in Iran’s crude oil and gas condensate production, Owji said late Thursday.

“The current oil production capacity has reached the pre-sanctions era, meaning the daily figure of over 3.8 million barrels,” he said.

He also sounded hopeful on achieving higher figures for exports of crude oil, gas condensate, and other petroleum products in the new Iranian year, which began on March 20.

Earlier this week, Owji said Iran’s condensate exports had risen nearly four-fold over the past eight months.

The exports of condensate reached nearly 240,000 barrels per day (bpd) at the end of the calendar year to March 20, he said.

Iran’s oil exports up 40% as US tanker seizure campaign fails

Iran’s crude oil exports have surged 40% since August when the new administration came to office, the CEO of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) says, adding gas condensate sales have grown 250%.

In remarks last month, the minister said the country had managed to increase its oil sales and receive all the revenues despite intensified pressure from Washington to halt the sales by trying to seize Iranian oil tankers.

“We took oil to the places the Americans cannot even think of,” he added.

Last year, the IRGC Navy released a video showing Iranian forces landing on the deck of a tanker that had seized an Iranian oil shipment in an “act of piracy”. They then navigated the vessel toward Iranian waters.

The incident took place on October 25, in the midst of negotiations in Vienna to remove Washington’s anti-Iran sanctions and bring the US into full compliance with the 2015 Iran deal.

The US left the deal in 2018 in pursuit of a confrontation policy against Iran. Washington called the policy the “maximum pressure” campaign and vowed to bring Iran’s oil exports to zero.

The US has continued its aggressive attempts to seize Iran’s tankers in recent months, but all of those attempts have failed miserably, as international tanker trackers and shipping sources confirmed the increase in Iranian oil exports amid a decrease in global supply that has pushed oil prices to multi-year highs.

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