Azerbaijan, Baku, Sep.15/ Trend F.Milad/
Iran is still the second biggest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Iran's OPEC Governor Mohammad-Ali Khatibi said, ISNA reported.
He rejected some news published by western media claiming that Iraq has replaced Iran as the second major crude producer in OPEC.
On August 12, Platts quoted Iraq's deputy prime minister and former oil minister Hussein al-Shahristani as saying that Iraqi output had risen about 3.2 million barrels per day (bpd) and was now higher than that of Iran, Kuwait and the UAE.
OPEC, which uses secondary sources to monitor its own production, estimated Iraqi output at 3.079 million bpd in July. Iraq itself told OPEC it pumped 3.05 million bpd in July, up from 2.95 million bpd in June. Iran did not provide a figure for July output, but the secondary source estimate was 2.817 million bpd, down from 2.99 million bpd in June.
The International Energy Agency on August 10 pegged Iraqi output at 3.02 million bpd in July, up from 2.91 million bpd in June, and Iranian output at 2.9 million bpd in July, down from 3 million bpd in June.
Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi has said that the country's oil output is projected to increase by 1.5 million bpd by 2016.
All development plans related to joint oil and gas fields will by finalized by the end of the first half of the current Iranian calendar year (September 21), he added.
In July, Qasemi announced that new oil reserves of up to 6 billion barrels have been discovered in southwestern Iran.
The reserves are located around the Yadavaran oilfield in Khuzestan Province.
With the new oil discovery, Iran's oil reserves stand at about 160 billion barrels.
National Iranian Oil Company's managing director Ahmad Qalebani has said that the country's daily oil and gas outputs should amount to five million barrels and 1.47 billion cubic meters by 2015.