Minister: Iran's Fossil Fuel Production Capacity to Reach 5.7mbpd
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh assured on Sunday that the country’s capacity to produce fossil fuels, including oil and gas condensates, can hit 5.7 million barrels per day (bpd) until the end of the Iranian year of 1396 (March 20, 2018).
Addressing an open session of the Iranian parliament on Sunday, the oil minister underlined that he saw prospect of achieving such figure assuming that the anti-Iran sanctions would remain in place.
“We pledge right here that, in case the sanctions are in place... we can reach the production capacity of 5.7 million barrels per day by the end of 1396, and we will implement this plan,” Zanganeh told the lawmakers.
He noted that the core of the plan to reach that goal is to focus on boosting crude oil production by tapping into the shared fields.
Back in May, the oil minister said Iran plans to start the process of increasing oil production from fields shared with neighbors by one million barrels per day (bpd) within the coming month, noting that the process will be completed by 4 years.
“Massive efforts to raise oil production by one million barrels a day will begin within the next few months,” he said at the time.
“Such production capacity will be reached in the coming four years,” he explained, adding that if this goal is achieved, it would be the biggest ever bargaining chip of the oil ministry since the increase in oil production will take place in joint fields.
With 137.6 billion barrels of proven reserves, Iran has the world's fourth largest crude deposits. In terms of gas reserves, it is second only to Russia, with reserves estimated at 29.61 trillion cubic meters (tcm).