Iran Plans to Raise Oil Exports to 2.35 Million bpd

Iran plans to raise crude oil exports to 2.35 million barrels per day "over the next few months", the National Iranian Oil Company’s director for international affairs said.

“Iran's oil exports will soon increase by about 150,000 barrels per day, which is well within grasp given the (anticipated) supply and demand trends in the global market,” Mohsen Qamsari was quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency on Sunday.

Iran has some way to go before boosting exports to 2.5 million barrels a day Qamsari noted, adding that Iran is aiming at 2.35 million bpd in exports in the short-term from the current 2.2 million. The former figure was Tehran's pre-sanctions oil export level.

“At present, Iran exports between 600,000 bpd to 650,000 bpd to the Europe on average.”

Domestic oil consumption stands at 1.8-1.85 million barrels a day, thus any rise in oil output will be undertaken with the aim of increasing exports.

  Six-Month Exports

Referring to data provided by the Oil Ministry, Qamsari said Iran exported a total of 2.5 million bpd of oil and gas condensates over the past six months, including 500,000 barrels of condensates per day.

Gas condensate is a type of ultra light crude found in the Persian Gulf's gas reservoirs.

He stressed that the average price for both crude oil and condensates has been around $40 per barrel, which translates into roughly $18 billion in the past six months.

Ahmad Doust-Hosseini, chairman of the board of executive directors at National Development Fund of Iran, also said, “In the most optimistic case, Iran’s annual oil and gas revenues in the current Iranian year will reach $50 billion.”

He added that according to law, 20% of the oil/gas earnings are deposited with the NDFI.

Sanctions cut Iran's oil production to around 2.5 million bpd from around 4 million bpd while exports sank to a little over a million barrels.

According to a report by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Iran pumped 3.63 million bpd of oil in August, up 10,000 bpd from July, an OPEC source told Reuters, marking a slowdown in the rapid growth that followed the lifting of international restrictions against its nuclear program in January.

Iran hopes to sign the first of dozens of contracts with foreign companies to develop its oil and gas projects later this month. Tehran lined up 50 oil and gas development projects in an international conference last year.