December 25, 2015
The Oil Ministry says it successfully jacked up its oil output by 500,000 barrels a day in just hours last week, proving it will be able to do so immediately after sanctions are lifted.
Mohsen Dehqanzadeh, managing director of the Karun Oil and Gas Development Co., told reporters the increase was achieved in Iran’s southern onshore fields in a matter of hours. He said the increase had been expected to take three days, but everyone was pleasantly surprised.
Oil Minister Bijan Namdar-Zanganeh said Iran would boost output by 500,000 barrels a day within days after the lifting of sanctions and by a total of 1 million barrels a day within five months.
Production is now about 2.9 million barrels a day with 1.1 million of that exported and the rest consumed domestically. To reach 3.9 million barrels a day would mean pumping more than Iran was producing before sanctions were tightened in 2012. Iran’s output had been declining every month for the previous few years as aging oilfields were declining and could not produce more without much investment.
Output at the end of 2011, before sanctions were tightened had fallen to 3.5 million barrels a day.
Industry specialists generally believe the 500,000-barrel goal is readily achievable, but doubt Iran can add 1 million barrels and reach a total output of 3.9 million barrels a day, a volume Iran has not pumped since 2008.
