Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 27 By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
The Islamic Republic has increased its crude oil output by 0.4 million barrels per day(mb/d) following the lifting of sanctions in January, the World Bank said in its Commodity Markets Outlook report, released Apr. 26. Iran's crude oil exports have resumed to Europe, and Asian buyers have also increased purchases.
The country's output is expected to continue climbing, from 2.9 mb/d at end-2015 toward its estimated capacity of 3.6 mb/d, according to the report. The International Energy Agency states that with foreign investment and technology, Iran could increase its crude oil production capacity to 4 mb/d by the end of the decade.
The Islamic Republic's oil production(including condensates) stood at 3.614 mb/d in 2014, according to the report. About 2.024 mb/d of the total output was used domestically. Iran's oil output plunged by more than one million barrels to 2.8 mb/d during a 3-year sanctions, imposed by western countries in 2012.
Iran had to shut down some fields, but resumed the output to around 3.3 mb/d in March, three months after lifting sanctions. Tehran says it would increase this figure to the pre-sanctions level, but most of international organization, including the Energy Information Administration believe that the country can add only around 0.5 mb/d to its output in 2016 due to the delays in developing new fields and technical problems for resuming output from old fields.
Meanwhile, about 80 percent of Iran's active fields are in their second half-life and their production decrease by 8-13 percent annually.