Baku, Azerbaijan, May 10
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iran will explore 5-6 new oil and gas fields in the current Iranian calendar year, which began on March 21.
Hormoz Qalavand, Managing Director of the National Iranian Oil Company's (NIOC) Exploration Department, said that according to Iran's fifth Five-Year Development Plan (2010-2015), 400 million barrels of recoverable crude oil should be discovered every year.
On April 6, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said Iran forecasts an increase in its crude oil and natural gas production in the current Iranian calendar year.
"Iran's crude oil output is forecast to increase by about 200,000 barrels per day to 4 million barrels per day, and its daily natural gas output is forecast to increase by about 100 million cubic meters per day to 400 million cubic meters per day," the minister explained.
The country is currently exporting about 1.2 million barrels per day of oil and has earmarked 1.5 million barrels of daily sales in the national budget for the year 1393, he added.
By holding 157 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil reserves, Iran possesses the world's fourth largest reserves of crude oil.
An interim accord easing restrictions on insurance for Iran's oil shipments and freeing up cash held outside the country in return for a suspension of nuclear work went into effect in January. Under the agreement, six buyers permitted under U.S. sanctions to take Iranian crude don't have to cut imports to avoid penalties.