Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 16
By Fatih Karimov – Trend
Asian markets share about 62 percent of Iran’s oil export, Mohsen Ghamsari, director for international affairs at the National Iranian Oil Company, said, IRNA news agency reported Oct. 16.
China is the main destination of Iran’s oil exports, Ghamsari said, adding that Beijing averagely imports 600,000 barrels of crude oil from Iran on a daily basis, which is equal to the Islamic Republic’s total oil export to the European countries.
Iran has started crude exports to small Chinese refineries in the form of spot cargo, which are not included in the aforementioned statistics, he said.
Iran eyes to increase its daily crude oil export by 150,000-300,000 barrels by March 2017, Ghamsari added.
China was importing some 400,000 barrels of crude oil from Iran per day during the sanctions period.
Under international sanctions, which extended till early 2016, Iran’s oil export dropped from 2.3 to 1 million barrels a day.
Earlier in October, Ghamsari said that Iran’s daily oil and condensate exports stood at over 2.5 million barrels during the current fiscal year (started March 20).
The Islamic Republic exported 2 million barrels of crude oil, as well as 500,000 barrels of gas condensate per day during the period, Ghamsari added.
The strong demand for Iran’s crude in Asia and Europe has enabled it to raise its oil output to just over 3.8 million bpd, still below the 4 million bpd level termed by Tehran as a precondition for discussing output limits with other oil producers.