Seyed Mohsen Qamsari, the director for international affairs at the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), rejected a Reuters report which claimed Iran's oil sales look to be headed towards a six-month low in September, down 16 percent from August.
The report said Tehran is struggling to boost crude exports despite optimism over the landmark deal on its nuclear program.
It said the OPEC producer has been getting lukewarm responses from Asian buyers to offers of discounts in return for increased purchases as it tries to regain market share lost to rivals such as Saudi Arabia over the last 3-1/2 years of Western sanctions.
There are some inexpert ideas about rise or fall in Iran’s oil sales; Qamsari said, adding that these viewpoints are not true. For the time being the country is selling one billion barrels of oil per day.
He said there is no problem in selling oil to the refineries of China, India, South Korea, Japan and Turkey. Iran has signed contracts with these countries for the annual sales of oil to them.
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said Iran can boost oil production in one week after international sanctions are lifted.
The minister said production can increase by 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) within a week after sanctions end and by 1 million bpd within a month following that.
With holding 157 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil reserves, Iran possesses the world’s fourth largest crude oil reserves.