TEHRAN (Iran News) – Post-sanction Iran able to boost oil output to 6m bpd: Lukoil. Vice President of Russia’s giant Lukoil Company has said Iran is able to quickly boost its oil output to six million barrels per day (bpd) if the U.S. sanctions are lifted, Russian state-owned Tass reported.
Speaking on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on June 3, Leonid Fedun said: “If sanctions are lifted, Iran will be able to offer up to 1.5 million barrels of oil per day to the market in the near time.”
Iran is a key factor for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and it is more important than the demand in the global oil market, the top manager said.
“Shortage may turn into surplus. That is why OPEC is so cautious in all its actions,” Fedun noted.
In late May, Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh had said Iran could “easily” boost its oil production capacity to 6.5 million bpd.
“We can easily reach 6.5 million barrels per day,” Zanganeh said at a ceremony to award studies on the country’s giant Azadegan oil field on May 31.
Zanganeh said Iran is ready to return to the oil market as soon as the nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is revived and the U.S. sanctions are lifted.
Iran is gradually boosting crude oil production to get ready for a strong comeback into the global market as the talks with world powers over the 2015 nuclear deal show signs of progress.
Earlier in May, officials from the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) had stated that the country’s oil fields are going through overhaul operations and connections with oil buyers are being re-established, according to a report by Bloomberg.
“In the most optimistic estimates, the country could return to pre-sanctions production levels of almost four million barrels a day in as little as three months,” the report said.
