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Iran
The Iranian-flagged oil tanker Fortune is docked at the El Palito refinery in Venezuela on 25 May 2020. File photo: AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Iran could easily produce 6.5 million barrels of oil per day, the country’s oil minister said on Monday, adding that it should be the top priority list of any government that comes to power.
“We can easily achieve a daily production of 6.5 million barrels,” oil minister Bijan Zangeneh told Iranian media on Monday, ahead of the upcoming presidential elections on June 18.
“Any government that comes to power should include increasing the amount of oil production to 6.5 million barrels per day as one of its first plans. In addition to creating jobs, it should activate Iranian industries and at the same time provide security."
Iran currently produces around 3 million barrels of oil per day, and has not produced six million since before the 1979 Islamic revolution.
“Iraq, who produced no more than three million barrels, has now increased to five million and still manages to have a market for it,” Zangeneh added.
Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers allowed it to sell crude oil on the international market, but former US President Donald Trump withdrew from the accord in 2018, forcing Iran into clandestinely taking its oil abroad and selling it, likely at a major price markdown. Talks in Vienna are ongoing to try and revive the deal, and appear to be making progress.
The minister’s comments comes ahead of the 17th Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies (OPEC+) meeting on Tuesday, where the possibility of increasing oil output will be discussed yet again. Production was initially cut in April of last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
On Friday, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) released monthly data of US crude imports for the month of March, showing that an average of 33,000 barrels of Iranian crude oil was imported into the US daily.
The oil came from the MT Achilleas, a ship seized in February by the US off the coast of the Emirati port city of Fujairah.
At the height of trade with Iran, in July 1977, the US imported some 26.5 million barrels of crude oil from Iran, then under the rule of the American-allied Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The aftermath Islamic Revolution in Iran saw those sales plummet to zero in the months that followed.
Sales have gone on and off over the years following the revolution.
A barrel of Brent crude oil was sold for just over 70 dollars on Tuesday, also signaling further recovery for the global market.
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