According to an Argus Media news source, Iran’s crude output has increased to 3.1 million barrels per day (b/d), as reported by MP.
Iran’s crude oil output
Iran’s crude oil output has now risen to 3.1mn b/d, according to a key member of parliament’s energy commission, the highest for close to five years.
Speaking to Iran’s state owned IRNA news agency over the weekend, Hossein Hosseinzadeh said Iranian crude production has been rising markedly “in recent months” to stand well above the 2.2mn b/d it was at around the time Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi took office in August 2021.
Hosseinzadeh’s estimate comes in a little higher than the 3.07mn b/d figure given by Iran’s oil minister Javad Owji while in Vienna to attend the Opec seminar earlier this month, and represents a new high since the former US president Donald Trump reimposed sanctions on Iran in mid-2018. The last time Iran’s production stood at above 3mn b/d was October 2018, according to Argus figures.
Hosseinzadeh’s latest figure also stands far higher than the 2.75mn b/d average that Opec’s secondary sources reported for June, which was up from 2.69mn b/d in May. Argus, which is one of Opec’s seven secondary sources, estimated Iranian production at a higher 2.91mn b/d in June, up from 2.78mn b/d in May, and 2.57mn b/d at the start of the year.
Iran has not directly supplied a production figure to the secretariat since the US sanctions were reimposed.
Venezuela and Syria
The recent rise in production has been supported by rising exports to its primary buyer China, and to its fellow sanctioned allies Venezuela and Syria. Data from Vortexa show Iranian crude exports averaging 1.22mn b/d in the second quarter of this year, up from 936,000 b/d in the first quarter and 731,000 b/d in the second quarter of 2022. Iran’s crude exports hit a post-sanctions high of 1.37mn b/d in May, according to Vortexa data.
Hosseinzadeh put this increase down to “strong energy diplomacy” by the current Raisi administration with its allies in the Mideast Gulf, central Asian and Latin American regions, and said that the increased sales have resulted in a “79pc increase in oil revenues” year-on-year, which has helped “compensate for a major deficit” in Iran’s budget.
Production is up significantly on last year, but it is still well below its current capacity, because of the continued sanctions-related limitations on its sales. The Iranian government recently put current crude oil production capacity at 3.98mn b/d, while Argus sees it as closer to 3.85mn b/d. Owji said earlier this month that Iran’s crude production capacity should rise by 130,000 b/d by the end of the current Iranian year in March 2024.
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Source: Argus Media
