Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 15
By Emil Ilgar – Trend:
Maintaining the share of Iran’s oil in global markets is more important than oil price, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said Feb. 15.
“Iran’s oil output decreased during the sanctions era (2012-2015) and resuming the production to the pre-sanctions level is in the oil ministry’s agenda,” he said in an interview with state IRIB TV.
Zanganeh said that those who have disturbed the oil market balance should take responsibility and help clear the glut.
The oil price plunged from above $105 in 1H14 to below $27 last January, but it rose to $57 currently, especially due to the OPEC and non-OPEC producers’ promise to cut the output by 1.8 mb/d in 1H17.
Iran was exempted from the output cut deal and allowed to increase its output by 90,000 b/d to 3.797 mb/d.
OPEC reported Feb. 13 that Iran increased oil output in January 2017 by 50,200 barrels per day (b/d) to 3.775 mb/d compared to December 2016.
This is while OPEC members decreased oil production by 890,200 b/d to 32.139 mb/d in January, according to the report.
Saudi Arabia decreased the output by 496,200 b/d.
As for the “direct communication” statistics of OPEC, that is, Iran’s official statistics submitted to OPEC, the country’s oil output for January was at 3.92 mb/d.
Zanganeh commented that Iran increased oil output by 1 mb/d in three months after elimination of sanctions in January 2016.
During the sanctions era, Iran was producing 2.8 mb/d.
Zanganeh said currently Iran exports 2.8 mb/d of crude oil and gas condensate, of which 60 percent goes to Asia and the remainder to the EU.