Iran’s energy minister has vowed to reclaim the country’s share of global crude oil exports within months of sanctions being lifted and said Tehran will move quickly to open the doors to international oil companies to help boost production.
Speaking in Tehran at the first international oil and gas conference since a nuclear deal was struck in July, Bijan Namdar Zanganeh told representatives of some of the world’s biggest energy companies he is prioritizing a return to Iran’s pre-sanctions export levels, the development of energy sector technology and access to international financial markets.
Zanganeh also said Iran would boost production by 500,000 barrels a day when the nuclear deal with world powers is implemented — a move he sees in two months.
“We do not ask [OPEC’s] permission to increase our production,” he said.
----No change in OPEC output policy
Elsewhere in his remarks, Zanganeh said Iran doesn’t expect OPEC to change its current output policies and wants prices back above $70 a barrel.
Zanganeh said he expects “no change” when the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries meets on Dec. 4 in Vienna. “The atmosphere is not [right] for making changes.”
However, Zanganeh said OPEC members were “unhappy” with current oil prices of about $50 a barrel and would like a range of “more than $70” a barrel to $80 a barrel. He said “no one is thinking about $100” a barrel— the oil-price level between 2011 and last year’s collapse.