Increasing the export of petroleum products to Afghanistan from official terminals will help curb fuel smuggling and ensure quality products are supplied to Iran's eastern neighbor, the oil minister said
"More government-sponsored shipments will help restrain trans-border smuggling," Bijan Namdar Zanganeh told Shana following a meeting with Afghan Minister of Mines and Petroleum Daud Shah Saba on Sunday.
The meeting was focused on offering assistance to Afghanistan in crude oil and natural gas exploration projects.
During the meeting, the two sides reached an understanding on training Afghans in the gas industry and transfer Iran's knowhow to Afghanistan in oil and gas fields.
Over the first five months of the current Iranian year (started March 21), Iran exported 3 million liters of gasoil to Afghanistan per day. Officials from both countries plan to meet in future to negotiate boosting export of oil products from official terminals to rein in illicit cross-border trades. The Islamic Republic exported more than 12 million tons of oil and non-oil goods worth $6.5 billion from South Pars, its biggest gas field in the Persian Gulf during the first half of the current Iranian year.
According to officials, oil and non-oil exports saw a 30% hike during the same period vis-à-vis the corresponding period of last year in terms of tonnage.
The national crude output has been rising for two years and now stands at about 2.9 million barrels a day, the highest level since 2012. The country plans to produce 3.8 million to 3.9 million barrels of oil a day by March, with output rising by 500,000 barrels a day soon after sanctions are lifted and by 1 million barrels in the following five months.
