Expressing hope that Iran will increase oil export maintaining OPEC’s output ceiling, deputy oil minister has urged member countries to review their production and export levels to make room for Iran.
Deputy oil minister for international affairs noted that political issues are involved in Iran’s plan to increase oil export adding “we setting the proper political conditions to increase Iran’s oil exports; we haven’t had enough negotiations with Saudi Arabia while talks with countries like Venezuela and Algeria have been satisfactory.”
Referring to the abundance of recent negotiations, Zamaninia said: “indeed, all countries which have suffered from the drop in oil prices have made talks with Saudis.”
He questioned the issue of OPEC’s readiness to reduce production capacity in its upcoming meeting; “it is not yet certain that OPEC will cut production, but we know that many members are after the fulfillment of this goal,” he noted.
Before the sanctions were imposed against Iran, Iran’s oil production mounted to 3.9 million barrels per day while at the moment has dropped to a total of 2.7 million barrels daily.
Currently, Iran is forced to follow the output ceiling of one million barrels per day and the country’s oil is being exported to China, India, Turkey, Japan and South Korea.
Oil ministry officials have announced that Iran’s oil sales will increase by 500 to 600 thousand barrels per day immediately after the lifting of sanctions and in a matter of one year the increase will reach one million barrels a day.
Seyed Mohsen Ghamsari, Executive Director for International Affairs at National Iranian Oil Company, had said earlier that in the medium term after the removal of sanction Iran will be able to export 500 thousand barrels of crude to Europe and currently Turkey is Iran’s only European costumer with a purchase amount of 100 thousand barrels per day.
In addition to Europeans, Asian and African countries like Indonesia, Sri Lanka and South Africa have also announced their eagerness to buy oil from Iran during the post-sanction era.
With the lifting of sanctions, Iran will be able to send single packages to world markets but signing long-term contracts to sell oil will be a time-consuming process.
Given that oil purchase contracts are annually signed by refineries, Iran needs to wait until the existing agreements with other countries expire before signing long-term oil contracts after the lifting of sanctions, he said.