TEHRAN – As one of the world’s major oil producers Iran is expected to regain its market share, lost to rivals due to the U.S. sanctions, in case Joe Biden, who is leading in most polls, replaces Trump as the U.S.’s next president, Bloomberg reported.

Biden has signaled that under his presidency the U.S. is going to return to the 2015 nuclear accord Washington brokered when he was vice president under Barack Obama, the report said.

That means the economic sanctions that Trump has imposed on Iran could eventually be eased, opening the way for over two million barrels a day of Iranian crude exports.

Wall Street banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., and RBC Capital Markets LLC see one million barrels per day (bpd) or more of Iranian crude supplied to the market next year if Biden wins.

Iran has maintained its oil production levels despite the U.S. sanctions and according to the Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, the country is fully ready to increase its exports to the pre-sanctions levels in a short time span.

Back in May, Zanganeh had said that even the coronavirus outbreak has not halted oil production in the country.

Oil Ministry’s measures have been taken in four phases of prevention, readiness, confrontation, and returning to normal conditions, the official said.

“Within a few months after a Biden election, we expect some Iranian oil will be coming to market,” Bloomberg quoted Iman Nasseri, the London-based managing director for West Asia at consulting firm FGE, as saying.

The latest reports on Iran’s oil exports indicate that despite the U.S. sanctions the country has already risen its oil exports in recent months.

Data from TankerTrackers and two other firms indicated exports rose in September, although the figures fall into a wide range of between 400,000 bpd and 1.5 million bpd, Reuters has reported.

EF/MA