Azerbaijan, Baku, Sep.22/ Trend F.Milad/
Iran's oil production will not be increased this year compared to the year before, Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said.
He added that the new figures for oil and gas reserves will be announced in the near future, the ISNA news agency reported on Saturday.
"We are adding up reserves taking recent oil and gas explorations into account, and the new figures will be announced to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries soon," Qasemi said.
Iran has announced that it will implement 11 plans by the Iranian calendar month of Mordad 1392 (July 22-August 22, 2013) with the goal of boosting oil production by 175,000 barrels per day (bpd).
The plans are related to the first phase of the development plans of the Yadavaran, Sarvestan, Saadatabad, Hengam, Forouzan, Reshadat, Aban, and Paydar oilfields, according to a report published by the National Iranian Oil Company on Aug.25.
Once all the phases of the development plans are implemented, the output will be increased by 500,000 bpd.
Qasemi 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, ranking fourth worldwide after Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and Canada.