TEHRAN - Iranian heavy oil price increased by $2.45 in January to register a 3.1-percent increase compared to December 2022, according to OPEC’s latest monthly report published on February 14.

The Iranian heavy crude oil price reached $81.56 per barrel in the first month of 2022, compared to December’s $79.11 per barrel.

According to the report, the country’s average heavy crude price was $85.59 in 2022.

The average price of Iranian oil in the first month of 2023 registered a decrease of $4.03 compared to the same month in 2022. The price of Iranian heavy crude in the first month of 2022 was $85.59 per barrel, on average.

The report put Iranian crude output for January at 2.557 million barrels per day (bpd) indicating a 22,000 bpd decrease compared to the figure for the previous month.

Based on OPEC data, the country’s average crude output in the last quarter of 2022 stood at 2.567 million bpd indicating a nearly 2,000 bpd rise compared to the average figure for the year’s third quarter.

OPEC basket price also increased $1.94 or 2.4 percent to settle at $81.62 a barrel in January from the previous month.

Iranian heavy crude oil prices had followed an upward trend from the beginning of 2022 up to June, however, following the increase in production by OPEC members and the fading of the pandemic impacts on the global economy, the prices started to fall in late 2022.

Despite the negative impacts of the U.S. sanctions, Iran has been ramping up its oil production and exports over the past few months.

Earlier this month, Iranian Oil Minister Javad Oji said the country’s income from the sales of oil, natural gas, gas condensate, and petroleum products in the first 10 months of the current Iranian year (March 21, 2022-January 20, 2023) increased by 40 percent compared to the same period last year.

Addressing an open session of the parliament on February 1, Oji said that 70 million barrels of gas condensate were exported in the mentioned time span.

According to the official, the goals set in the current year’s national budget bill for the exports of oil and gas will definitely be achieved by the yearend.

He noted that the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has already sold enough oil and gas and petroleum products to realize the budget goals by 100 percent, however, collecting the revenues needs more time.

In remarks in November 2022, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi highlighted the failure of the enemy’s policy of maximum pressure, saying the country’s oil export has reached the pre-sanction levels.

Back in January, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) in a report put Iran’s average oil production in 2022 at 2.54 million bpd, 140,000 bpd more than the previous year.

Iran's oil production in 2021 was about 2.4 million bpd.

EF/MA