TEHRAN (Iran News) – The current government in the Islamic Republic of Iran unlike the former government is determined to use all domestic capacities to propel the national economy towards success and growth and now that the Vienna talks seem to end successfully, it will be the best time for the government to accelerate its foreign trade and oil production.

In recent days and due to the Ukraine war and sanctions on Russia, the oil price is soaring with full speed and it has touched $140 per barrel and it can be a good opportunity for Tehran to compensate for the years it has been deprived of full access to the market.

On Thursday, Iranian Oil Minister Javad Owji said the country will return to its maximum oil output within one to two months from the conclusion of ongoing international talks that are meant to revive a 2015 nuclear deal known as the JCPOA.

“As soon as the Vienna negotiations are concluded we will reach the maximum oil output within one or two months although we will never wait for these negotiations,” Owji was quoted as saying.

Owji said that Iran will not tie its crude output increase plans to the negotiations in Vienna as he insisted that the country has alternative solutions to sell its oil or to increase supplies to domestic refineries or petrochemical plants.

Of course President Seyed Ebrahim Raisi has repeatedly said that the government will not tie the economy of the country to the outcome of the Vienna talks but he welcomes deal in Vienna if it is in favor of the nation.

Owji’s comments came a day after he attended a virtual meeting of the OPEC+ alliance of the oil producing nations where members agreed to stick to previous plans for a small increase in crude oil output in April.

That comes as many expect a return of Iranian crude to the market can calm down prices that have risen to record levels in recent days because of a military conflict in Ukraine.

Iran’s current oil output is believed to be more than 2.5 million barrels per day (bpd) while exports have reached over 1 million bpd in defiance of U.S. sanctions.

Iran pumped nearly 3.8 million bpd before the imposition of U.S. sanctions. Industry sources say the country has also around 80 million bpd of oil in floating storage.

Now the nation can see the difference between the governments and policies as one of them is trying hard to drive the economy forward without reliance on the West and just with reliance on the domestic capacities and the other one which had tied all actions to the ties with the West and the JCPOA.

In recent days Oil Ministry has signed many deals with the domestic companies to advance the oil and gas projects without waiting the Vienna talks. Of course Oil Ministry will welcome any deal with foreign countries for developing oil and gas fields but it will not sit and wait for foreign companies’ interests which are mostly politically motivated.

Oil Ministry has awarded over half a billion US dollar worth of flare gas projects to domestic companies as part of efforts to reach a zero flares target by 2025.

The contracts will be worth 470 million euros ($520 million) and will reduce the gas flared from the Iranian oilfields by 600 million cubic feet (nearly 17 million cubic meters) by 2024.

The eight contracts are part of an investment package of $1.22 billion introduced by the Iranian government in 2018 to recover flare gas from oilfields in southwestern Iran.

Of course the policy of the government and the establishment has changed in recent years from raw material sales to the value added product sales and petrochemical products earn the country considerable revenues per year and the government is focused on improving petrochemical sector by implementing different projects rather than only selling crude oil.

Recent economic policies of the government can be successful in the long term and it needs hard working and logical decisions in any compartment of the economy as well as the nation’s trust.

As the New Year of Iranians is approaching, all economists and analysts have pinned hopes on the economic prospect of the country in next year but it needs a harmony and united voice among the statesmen because any division and contradiction in promises will harm trust of the nation and the current stability in the market where inflation rate is gradually being curbed.

Boosting trade with neighboring states as well as increasing oil production will increase the revenues of the country in the current condition that the world is struggling with the subsequences of Ukraine war which has ignited the hike in prices of several basic goods in the world and Iranian officials should take logical actions to minimize the side-effects of Ukraine war on the prices in the country.