TEHRAN – Head of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Mohsen Khojasteh-Mehr has said his company is planning to boost the country’s oil production capacity to the pre-sanction levels or four million barrels by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2022), Shana reported.

“Based on our plans, we need $90 billion of investment in the oil sector, while $70 billion is also needed to develop gas fields,” Khojasteh-Mehr said in a press conference on Saturday.

The official noted that the Oil Ministry has defined different investment packages and considered a big share of contribution for foreign investment.

“In this regard, we welcome foreign investment, but if it is not materialized, we have other options and scenarios and we will not waste our time,” he said, adding that Iran has one of the safest energy supply corridors in the world and numerous negotiations have been held with foreign companies in this regard.

Khojasteh-Mehr further stated that considering the increase in the oil and gas production and the country's refining capacity, NIOC is also planning to boost the oil and gas industry’s export capacity to reach 1.5 times more than the pre-sanction levels over the next 10 years.

“The manpower working in the Iranian oil industry’s upstream sector is among the world’s most qualified, and the geography of the oil industry has enabled us to have energy security,” he stressed.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the NIOC head mentioned the country’s current crude oil and gas condensate exports, saying: “Exports of crude oil and gas condensate have increased and we are using all our capacities to maximize exports because the sustainability of crude oil exports is our policy.”

According to him, NIOC is looking for new and safe markets for exports to continue selling oil.

“The National Iranian Oil Company is one of the 10 largest companies in the world and we have a wealth of about 1,200 billion barrels of crude oil. Few countries in the world have this privilege, and we rank first in terms of oil and gas reserves,” the official stressed.

He pointed out that NIOC is currently operating 400 oil and gas fields, adding: "We can extract 340 billion barrels of our current resources with basic and conventional methods and without the need for advanced technologies."

EF/MA