Baku, Azerbaijan, May 22
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iran's crude oil exports(excluding gas condensates) have increased to 2 million barrels per day (mbpd) for the first time since 2012, Rokneddin Javadi, Iran's deputy oil minister said.
The figure is planned to reach 2.2 mbpd by mid-summer, Javadi, who is also heading the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), said, Mehr news agency reported May 22.
He further underlined that the Islamic Republic has no plan to join oil freeze plan.
The NIOC has fulfilled its commitments regarding the oil export increase, he said, adding Iran will continue to raise oil exports.
Iran's oil production stood at 3.03 mbpd during the first quarter of 2016, showing 230,000 b/d increase in comparison to 2015, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a report published May 10.
The Islamic Republic announced in late 2015 that it would add 0.5 mbpd of crude oil to the production level as soon as the international sanctions on the country are eliminated and the same amount of crude oil would be added to the output level in the second half of 2016.
The sanctions were lifted in mid-January 2016 after implementation of the comprehensive nuclear deal between Tehran and the P5+1 group, which included the US, the UK, France, Russia, China and Germany.
Iran has already rejected the calls by other oil producers to freeze its post-sanctions oil output increase to help stabilize the oil prices.
The country plans to increase its daily output to four million barrels till March 2017.