TEHRAN (Iran News) – Oil Minister 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.
“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.
Meanwhile Owji said the country needs a $200b investment in the upstream and downstream and petrochemical industries, the bulk of which has been raised under 50 contracts.
He said the contracts pertain to the development of oil fields, gas flares and gas fields as well as the improvement of the operation of refineries in terms of quality and quantity.
The Iranian oil minister said in the event of the revival of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, foreign companies will rush to participate in this plan.
Owji referred to the designation of the Persian year of 1401 as the year of knowledge-based companies, saying more than 200 knowledge-based firms have announced readiness to cooperate with the Oil Ministry.
He said with the construction of a petro-refinery in Hormozgan Province, in southern Iran, the Oil Ministry will be able to produce 300 thousand barrels and this capacity, alongside the Persian Gulf Star Refinery, will be highly conducive to the provision of oil and gas products.
He noted that most of the fields of activity proposed to knowledge-based companies are related to optimizing fuel consumption, increasing production in oil and gas fields and shallow wells and increasing productivity.
Owji said, “We are capable of producing 1 billion cubic meters of natural gas and 3.85 million barrels of oil by relying on the capabilities of our own experts.”
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.
