Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 13
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
The Islamic Republic plans to increase its total crude oil and condensate production capacity to 5.7 million barrels per (mbpd) day till March 2019, Mansour Moazzami, the Iranian deputy oil minister for planning and supervision on hydrocarbon resources said.
The oil ministry plans to raise the condensate output to 1.1 mbpd by March 2019, Moazzami said, the Islamic Republic's official IRNA news agency reported Jan. 13.
Iran's crude oil production from West Karoun oilfields, which are associated with Iraq is scheduled to reach 740,000 barrels per day by the mentioned period, he added.
The oilfields are currently producing 300,000 barrels per day.
If Iran increases its production capacity, it would make the country more valuable inside OPEC and also will allow Iran to make more efficient decisions inside the organization, Moazzami said.
There is no official information about the current capacity of the Islamic Republic's crude oil output.
About 80 percent of Iran's active oil fields are in their second half-life and their productivity decreases by 8-13 percent annually, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Iran's crude oil output, including condensates and natural gas plant liquids (NGPL) stood at 3.238 million barrels per day during the first nine months of 2014, EIA said.
By holding 157 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil reserves, Iran possesses the world's fourth largest reserves of crude oil.
Follow the author on Twitter: @UmidNiayesh