TEHRAN – Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Karim Zobeidi says the U.S. sanctions have not decreased the country’s oil production capacity, IRNA reported on Friday.

Mentioning some rumors about NIOC facing a gas shortage for injection into oil wells to maintain oil production, Zobeidi said: “At present, there is no problem in delivering gas to the oilfields as scheduled.”

Although since the re-imposition of the U.S. sanctions on Iran’s oil industry Iranian oil exports has decreased, the country’s production capacity is not negatively impacted, according to the official.

Domestic gas consumption in Iran has increased drastically in the past few weeks due to the cold weather and that made some rumors emerge regarding the shortage in gas supplies to the country’s industrial sectors and also injection into the oil fields to maintain the old fields’ recovery factor.

Earlier on Thursday, Deputy Oil Minister for Planning Houshang Falahatian had put the country’s oil production as 3.7 million barrels per day.

According to Falahatian, 1.7 million bpd of total production is consumed inside the country.

As reported by Shana, the official said that Iran is capable of exporting around 2 million barrels of crude oil per day.

The purpose of the unjust sanctions imposed on Iran is to prevent it from exporting its surplus oil output, Falahatian stressed.

EF/MA