Iran waits sanctions’ lifting for boosting oil exports

/By AzerTac/

By Sara Rajabova

Iran voiced readiness to provide global markets with an extra one million barrels of its crude oil per day, as soon as sanctions against the country’s oil exports are lifted.

Bijan Namdar Zangeneh, Iran’s Petroleum Minister said the extra volume will be provided from the collective production capacity of fields that have been put offline, stressing that the oil ministry is ready to do this “in a short matter of time”, Press TV reported.

The U.S. and EU imposed sanctions on Iran's oil and financial sectors at the beginning of 2012 due to claims of potential deviation toward non-civilian purposes in Iran's nuclear energy program. Iran has repeatedly denied Western allegations against its nuclear energy program.

The sanctions are aimed to prevent other countries from purchasing Iranian oil and conducting transactions with the Central Bank of Iran. The current sanctions also ban foreign investments the country needs to pump oil out of the ground.

International sanctions have undermined Iran’s oil production capacity and its oil exports thus harming the economy. Iran's oil exports have decreased by half after the imposition of sanctions.

An interim nuclear deal with world powers in November 2013 has helped the country to slightly increase its oil exports under the sanctions relief program.

Moreover, analysts believe that the successful performance by Zangeneh – and President Hassan Rouhani on the whole – have helped Iran produce and sell enough oil to keep the economy afloat.

Iran’s current oil production is estimated to be around 2.7 million barrels per day of which about 1 million barrels are exported – as required by the current regime of sanctions.

Zanganeh said in mid-March that the Islamic Republic would be able to raise production by a million barrels a day, bringing it to 3.8 million, “within a few months”.

Iran is seeking to forge a final agreement with international powers by June that would curb its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of sanctions that was a hurdle for Iranian economy in boosting oil exports, attracting investments etc.

Tehran is currently negotiating with P5+1 group of countries over the removal of sanctions that have been imposed over disputes on the Iranian nuclear energy program. The sides have a deadline approaching within the next several months to reach a comprehensive deal that envisages the removal of sanctions.