TEHRAN – National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) plans to increase the country’s crude oil production capacity to 5.7 million barrels per day (bpd) over the next eight years, Mohsen Khojasteh-Mehr, the company’s managing director, said.

Speaking on the sidelines of a visit to Kharg Island oil terminal, Khojasteh-Mehr said the increase in the country’s production capacity requires an increase in the capacity of export facilities, Shana reported on Thursday.

The official noted that the capacity of Kharg oil terminal can also be doubled in case of necessity.

Meanwhile, NIOC’s Director of Corporate Planning Karim Zobeidi put the country’s current oil production capacity at 3.8 million bpd on Friday.

Back in November 2021, the Iranian Oil Ministry had announced that plans were underway to boost the country’s crude oil capacity to near four million bpd by March 2022, returning to levels not seen since before the U.S. withdrew from the nuclear deal and re-imposed sanctions on the country's crude sales in 2018.

In the budget bill for the current Iranian calendar year (starts on March 21), special attention has been paid to improving oil and gas production and developing energy infrastructure across the country in order to boost the oil output to 3.952 million bpd.

Considering the new resource allocations for the development of the oil industry in the budget bill for the current fiscal year, the country’s crude oil and gas condensate production is expected to increase by 144,000 bpd, Tasnim News Agency reported in late January.

Based on OPEC’s latest monthly report, Iran’s crude oil production in March reached 2.546 million bpd to register a 7,000-barrel increase compared to the figure for February.

The country produced 2.539 million bpd of crude oil in February, the report said citing secondary sources.

The Islamic Republic’s average crude output for the first quarter of 2022 stood at 2.528 million bpd indicating a 56,000-bpd increase compared to the figure for the fourth quarter of the previous year, the report indicated.

EF/MA