DUBAI (UAE) – Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said on Saturday that the country is determined to develop its oil industry despite US sanctions.
“We will not surrender under any circumstances … We have to increase our capacity so that when necessary with full strength we can enter the market and revive our market share,” said Zanganeh in a televised address.
His address came before the inking of a $294-million contract between the National Iranian Oil Company and Persia Oil & Gas to develop the Yaran oilfield which is shared with Majnoon field in neighbouring Iraq.
The agreement between the two oil companies is targetted at producing 39.5 million barrels of oil from Yaran in Khuzestan province in southwestern Iran, said SHANA, the oil ministry’s news agency.
Iran has been pummeled by reimposed US sanctions since 2018 after Washington quit the agreement with Teheran over nuclear weapons in 2015. The country’s oil exports are pegged at 100,000 to 200,000 barrels per day, down from more than 2.5 million bpd that Iran shipped in April 2018.
Its crude production has halved to around 2 million bpd.
(Photos syndicated via Reuters)
This story has been edited by BH staff and is published from a syndicated field