Tehran, Iran, March 4
By Kamyar Eghbalnejad – Trend:
An Iranian deputy oil minister has called for boosting the country’s oil output, adding that a possible snap back of sanctions on the Islamic Republic would impose hurdles to the industry.
“The US is posing a threat to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA, aka nuclear deal) which may leave a negative impact. We should wait and see the outcome of politic developments. In case the sanctions snap back, we will face difficulties. However, there is no sanction on Iranian oil industry in the current situation and we cannot comment on the issue in the current situation,” Roknodin Javadi told Trend on the sidelines of the 2nd Iran International Exploration & Production Congress and Exhibition (Iran E&P 2018).
He further touched upon Iran’s production of crude and said the country in order to hit its marketing targets must boost its annual capacity for producing oil by 600,000 barrels.
Iran, under the country’s sixth development plan, needs to boost its production capacity up to 4.7 million barrels of oil per day by 2021, he added.
Saying that Iran hold a share of 4.3 percent from the global oil production, he added that the country’s share form OPEC output stands at 13 percent.
Following the implementation of the nuclear deal in January 2016, Iran’s overall crude output has reached about 3.8 million barrels per day and the country currently exports about 2.6 million barrels of crude and condensate.
Under the nuclear deal, Tehran agreed to restrict its nuclear program in return for the removal of sanctions that have crippled its economy.
However, Tehran says the nuclear deal hasn’t fully benefited Iran due to the US approach to the nuclear pact. The leading European banks and companies appearing reluctant to do business with Tehran due to concerns over running afoul of the US regulations.
US President Donald Trump has told the Europeans that they must agree to “fix the terrible flaws of the Iran nuclear deal” or he would re-impose the sanctions that Washington lifted as part of the pact.