Iran has projected higher oil export revenues for its new financial year based on the draft budget for the 12 months to March 2023.
Bloomberg reports, citing Iranian agency Tasnim, that the draft includes oil export revenues that are a third higher than those in a previous budget draft. The value of the exports is seen at around $115 billion.
Iran's oil exports are already on the rise, the latest figures have shown, despite continued U.S. sanctions.
According to data from cargo tracking companies, Iran has been exporting some 1 million bpd lately, which is the highest export rate since 2019. In December, according to Petro-Logistics data, Iran exported more than 1 million bpd of crude. The January average, however, has been lower at 700,000 bpd.
"We wouldn't expect to see 1 million bpd consistently until there is a change in the political landscape," the chief executive of the consultancy, Daniel Gerber, told Reuters.
Most of the Iranian crude barrels are, as before, going to China, despite the sanctions. Iranian oil imports are particularly attractive for a consumer as large as China as Tehran is selling the commodity at a discount because of the sanctions.
The "international community, including China, has been conducting normal cooperation with Iran under the global legal framework, which are both reasonable and legitimate. They deserve respect and safeguard," the Chinese Foreign Ministry told Reuters.
Meanwhile, Iran is negotiating its nuclear policies with the United States in a bid to remove sanctions. A senior Iranian official said earlier today progress had become harder because the U.S. and Western European negotiators only "pretended" to suggest initiatives to move the talks forward.
"The work of Iranian negotiators towards progress is becoming more difficult every moment ... while Western parties 'pretend' to come up with initiatives to avoid their commitments," Ali Shamkani, secretary of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council, said in a tweet quoted by Reuters.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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