Baku, Azerbaijan, May 9
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: Iran is able to raise oil sales by half a million barrels per day once the sanctions are lifted, Mohsen Ghamsari, the director of the International Affairs Department at National Iranian Oil Company, said.
"Although the market situation has changed notably compared to three years ago, but we are able to boost exports promptly by 500,000 barrels per day once the sanctions are lifted," Iran's Shana news agency quoted Ghamsari as saying May 9.
However, selling crude oil more than that is not possible for the time being and will take time, he added.
He also predicted that oil prices would not surpass $70 per barrel in 2015.
Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh has called on crude oil producers to make room for further Iranian oil export in post-sanctions era.
He added that Iran's oil export has increased by 60 percent since "crucial international sanctions" against the country were imposed (in mid-2012) and oil producers should make room for Iranian oil export resumption after sanctions are removed.
Iran and P5+1 (the U.S., UK, France, China, Russia + Germany) are negotiating to reach a comprehensive nuclear deal by June 30 to pave the way for elimination of the sanctions.
Iran's oil export during the pre-sanctions time was about 2.5 million barrels per day (mb/a), but the figure currently stands at around 1.1 mb/d.
Oil futures settled back under $60 a barrel on May 7, with traders increasingly worried about how much oil Iran can add to the global market should sanctions be lifted as part of a deal with world powers over its nuclear program.
Edited by CN