Iran oil exports at highest level in years

Figures provided by Bloomberg show that the country’s exports rose to 1.55 million barrels per day (bpd) in January. The figure was the highest since March 2014 and marked a rise of 9.2 percent compared to the month before.

Other figures showed that Iran’s production had climbed to 3.37 million bpd in January, the highest level since February 2014.

The US-led sanctions that were imposed against Iran in 2011 limited the country’s oil sales to only 1 million bpd from the previous levels of above two million barrels a day.

After the election of President Hassan Rouhani and his appointment of Zangeneh as the oil minister, Iran undertook serious efforts to lift its oil production capacity in face of the sanctions that also barred foreign investments in the Iranian oil industry.

Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh emphasized earlier this week that Iran had already been able to regain the share of the oil market that it had lost as a result of the sanctions.

Zangeneh had previously emphasized that Iran would increase its oil production by some 500,000 bpd immediately after the removal of the sanctions and by another 500,000 bpd within the following months.

The Iranian minister – to whom the success  of Iran’s oil industry is largely attributed – had also called on global producers to make way for the incoming Iranian oil supplies, stressing that Iran has no plans to freeze its production – as demanded by market heavyweights such as Russia and Saudi Arabia.

This past Wednesday, Iran’s President Rouhani told reporters that the country’s oil exports will reach 2 million bpd within the next few months.