Iran continued to export more than 1 million barrels of oil per day in the first two months of the current Iranian year (March 21-May 21), which is 40% higher than what Iran sold in the same period of last year, the Oil Ministry announced.
The country has succeeded in keeping the sale of oil steady while it is under tough sanctions imposed by the US. With the efforts of all industry players, oil production has not been halted even for a day in the past four years when the country was hit by a new round of sanctions, IRNA reported.
The increase of oil sales compared to previous months, along with the crude price hike in international markets, has helped raise the country’s foreign revenues in the oil sector, the ministry added.
According to reports, oil revenues in the first two months of the year had a 60% increase compared with the same period of last year.
The Central Bank of Iran declared that more than $7.5 billion of oil and petrochemical sales were received in the first two months, indicating a $3-billion hike compared with the income earned during March 21-May 21, 2021.
Oil Minister Javad Owji had earlier announced that Iran's oil and condensates exports is to reach 1.4 million barrels per day later this year.
Owji said his ministry plans to raise the production capacity of crude and condensates to 5.7 million bpd in the near future from about 4 million bpd now.
Development of Oilfields
The focus will be on developing West Karoun block, home to a cluster of oilfields that Iran shares with Iraq, to raise its production to 1 million bpd.
Since 2013, oil production from the block has increased sixfold to 420,000 bpd now.
For additional development, $12 billion of investment are initially required in West Karoun.
Straddling the border with Iraq, West Karoun includes several large oilfields, namely Azadegan, Yaran, Yadavaran, Darkhovin, Naftshahr, Paidar-e Gharb and Azar, with the first three divided into north and south projects. The block holds an estimated 67 billion barrels of oil in place.
According to reports, the priority is development and maximum production of shared fields.
Another priority in West Karoun is to process natural gas extracted at oilfields and stop flaring it. With the programs underway, all the associated gas at North and South Azadegan and Yadavaran fields and part of Darkhovein will be captured and processed in the coming months.
Oil producing countries often burn or flare a certain amount of natural gas that accompanies crude oil to the surface, which is too small to be recovered or pipelined to a processing facility. The phenomenon, however, emits hazardous air pollutants during the flaring of the associated gas.
Despite decades of sanctions and limited investment, Iran remains one of the 10 largest oil producers in the world, ranking eighth after the US, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Canada, Iraq, China and the UAE.
The country sits on the world’s fourth-largest proven oil reserves after Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Canada. It also accounts for 17% of global gas reserves and ranking second after Russia.
Iran is the third-largest gas producer after the US and Russia, accounting for 6.5% of the global gas production, though most of it is consumed locally.
The market is desperately looking for Iranian oil as it braces for a major supply shock caused by the Ukraine conflict, namely the loss of a huge amount of Russian oil exports.
Losing this volume of oil would leave a big hole to fill, but energy analysts say any additional supplies from Iran would ease some of the pressure in an extremely tight market and soothe nerves.
