Iran’s August oil production up 10k bpd

Iran has told OPEC that its oil production in August stood at 3.63 million barrels per day (bpd) showing an increase of 10,000 bpd compared to July. 

Reuters has reported the revelation from an informed source inside OPEC who has not been named.

The report further added that the latest figures suggest Iranian production has reached the level it pumped in late 2011, before the last round of sanctions were tightened leading to a drop in Iranian exports.

Iran has been under multiple years of sanctions that limited its oil exports to 1 million barrels per day and also barred foreign investments in its oil industry.

The sanctions were lifted in January after a nuclear deal that Iran had reached with the so-called P5+1 group of countries – the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany – came into effect. 

The country managed to increase its oil production and accordingly its oil exports by several hundred thousand barrels per day within only a short time after the removal of the sanctions.   

Officials in Tehran had previously emphasized that the country would keep increasing its oil production until it regains the market share it lost as a result of the sanctions.  

In June, Reuters said in a report that port loading data showed the Islamic Republic showed that Iran had been able to increase its oil exports at a much faster pace than earlier anticipated.

Mohsen Qamsari, the director for international affairs of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), said on Wednesday that Iran’s oil output had reached 3.8 million barrels per day within the next few months. 

The comments come after the world’s biggest crude oil producers Russia and Saudi Arabia announced on Monday that they would form a strategic energy partnership designed to help stabilize oil markets – a partnership which could envisage freezing oil output to help stabilize the prices. 

Iran has so far rejected the call to freeze its output as unfair and emphasized that it will go ahead with its plans to increase its oil production.