TEHRAN - Iran is able to raise its crude oil exports by 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) immediately after the sanctions against the country are lifted, said Mohsen Qamsari, director for international affairs at the National Iranian Oil Company.

He made the remarks on the last day of the 20th Oil, Gas, Refining, and Petrochemical Exhibition of Iran (Iran Oil Show 2015), which run from May 6 to 9 at the Tehran Permanent International Fairgrounds. 

He put the volume of Iran’s crude oil exports at over one million bpd.

Asian market accounted for 62 percent of Iran’s crude oil exports before the sanctions, the official said, adding that Asian countries will remain the major export destinations for the Iranian oil after the sanctions.

Several European companies, participating in the Iran Oil Show, have announced their readiness to buy Iran’s crude oil once the sanctions are lifted, Qamsari stated.

He predicted that the crude oil price will not go above $70 per barrel in 2015.

Western sanctions have cut Iran's oil exports by more than half to about 1.1 million bpd from a pre-2012 level of 2.5 million bpd.

In April, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said it will take just a few months for the country to increase its oil production to pre-sanction levels. 

Zanganeh has set an output target of 5.7 million bpd of crude oil by 2018.    

With holding 157 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil reserves, Iran possesses the world’s fourth largest crude oil reserves