Iran’s crude oil production is expected to grow to 4 million bpd by the end of the current Iranian year, March 20, 2018, the chief executive of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), Ali Kardor, told Iran’s news agency Tasnim on Tuesday.
Iran is currently pumping over 3.8 million bpd of oil, the manager added. Exports of crude oil and gas condensates now exceed 2.6 million bpd, but are further expected to increase as the country plans to raise its output in the second half this year and in early 2018.
OPEC’s third-largest producer, Iran, is not reducing production under the OPEC output cut deal. The country has argued in the talks that it needed to restore the market share which it had lost to Western sanctions on its oil exports. Still, under the OPEC agreement, it is supposed to be keeping a cap on its output at just below 3.8 million bpd. Over the summer months, Iran produced just over 3.8 million bpd, according to OPEC’s secondary sources.
Earlier this month, NIOC’s Kardor said that Iran planned to increase its crude oil production to 4.5 million bpd by 2022, according to Iran’s oil ministry’s news service, Shana.
Iran’s crude oil exports are seen rising to 2.5 million bpd within five years, the manager noted.
The higher crude oil production is expected to come from a 420,000-bpd increase at the West Karoun oil field, and another 280,000-bpd rise in output from oil fields in central and southern Iran and offshore, according to Kardor. Related: The World’s Largest Offshore Oil Field Is Back In Action
Iran plans to increase its condensate production to reach 864,000 bpd within five years, Kardor said.
Gas output is expected at 1.3 billion cubic meters per day in 2022, thanks to more production at South Pars, according to NIOC’s manager.
In early July, France’s energy major Total SA signed a contract to develop phase 11 of the South Pars gas field in Iran—the world’s biggest gas field—marking the first Iranian Petroleum Contract (IPC) with a Western major since most sanctions on Iran were lifted.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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