Tehran, Iran, May 12
By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has said there are plans in Iran to increase oil output from the West Karun area to 700,000 bpd.
Rouhani who was speaking as a presidential candidate in a live TV debate said this plan is to prevent falling behind Iraq in tapping the shared oil fields, Trend correspondent reported from Tehran May 12.
Iran has prioritized the development of West Karoon block, including North and South Azadegan, Yadavaran and North and South Yaran fields with 64 billion barrels of reserves, which currently share about 6 percent in the country's total crude oil production.
He also noted that as recently Persian Gulf Star refinery came on stream, the country will stop exporting raw gas condensates and will instead treat them at the plan and produce added value.
Iran inaugurated the first phase of the Persian Gulf Star Refinery last week. The project consists of three phases, with 120,000 barrels per day (b/d) of oil processing capacity each one.
Defending his government’s oil policy, he said, “It was a source of pride for us to retake our OPEC quota from Saudi Arabia by increasing our crude output after the nuclear deal.”