TEHRAN – Iran produced 2.084 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil in January, registering a 62,000-bpd increase compared to the last month of 2020, according to OPEC’s latest monthly report published on Thursday.

Based on secondary sources, Iran had produced 2.022 million bpd of crude oil in December 2020.

The report put average Iranian crude output for the last quarter of 2020 at 1.992 million barrels per day indicating a near 44,000-bpd increase compared to the figure for the third quarter of the said year.

Iranian average crude oil production stood at 1.985 million bpd in 2020, according to the report.

According to secondary sources, 13 OPEC members produced a total of 25.496 million barrels of oil in January, up from 25.315 million barrels in December 2020.

The country’s heavy crude oil prices also increased $5.18 in January to register a 10.5-percent rise compared to December 2020, based on the OPEC report.

Iran sold its heavy crude oil at $454.38 per barrel in the mentioned month, compared to December’s $49.2 per barrel.

The country’s average heavy crude price was $62.61 since the beginning of 2020 up to the report’s publishing date.

OPEC Basket prices also rose over 10 percent to $54.38 a barrel in January, up $5.21 from December 2020.

In its report, OPEC has put the average global demand for oil in 2021 at 96.005 million barrels per day, which is 5.79 million barrels more than the figure for 2020.

In addition to the devastating impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on the global oil industry which resulted in the drastic fall in oil prices, the Iranian oil industry has also been under pressure from the U.S. efforts to isolate the country by re-imposing sanctions.

EF/MA