TEHRAN – Iran’s oil industry requires $275 billion of investment to increase and maintain production in oil and gas fields in the next 17 years, an official with the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) said.

According to Ahmad Rajabi, director of corporate planning at NIOC, the company has defined a plan to increase the country’s crude oil production to 5.5 million barrels per day (bpd) by the Iranian calendar year 1410 (2031) and to maintain the mentioned production level until the Iranian calendar year 1420 (2041) for which a total investment of about $150 billion is required.

As Mehr News Agency reported, a strategic plan to increase the country's natural gas production is also defined to achieve the production of 1.5 billion cubic meters of crude gas in the horizon of 1410 and to maintain the mentioned production level until 1420 with a total investment of about $125 billion, Rajabi said.

According to the official, the Oil Ministry has invested $600 million to increase the country’s oil production to 3.6 million bpd by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 19) and plans are underway to attract another $3.0 billion to boost the output to about 4.0 million by the end of the next year (late March 2025).

“Since the beginning of the 13th government administration, the country’s oil production has increased from about 2.1 million barrels per day to about 3.4 million barrels per day,” Rajabi said.

EF/MA