Oil Minister Javad Owji has said that Iran plans to increase its daily oil production to 5.7 million barrels per day without providing any timeframe.

Owji also said Iran increased it income year-on-year by 250 percent from oil, gas condensates, petrochemical products, and natural gas in the Iranian year ended on March 20 due to new customers and diversified contracts.

Opec (Organization of Petroleum-Exporting Countries) put Iran’s average 2021 production at 2.405 million barrels a day (BPD), up from 2 million in 2020 but lower than the 3.8 million before the US imposed ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions in 2018 threatening punitive action against third parties buying Iranian crude and slashed Iran’s exports.

"In parliament, lawmakers decided to raise the ceiling of exports of oil and condensates from 1.2 million barrels (per day) to 1.4 million barrels,” Owji said. “The Oil Ministry will do everything in its power to realize the level set in the budget.”

In late 2020, Iran announced an ambitious plan to raise production capacity to over 6.5 million bpd by 2040, although some pundits say this would is unrealistic due to the sanctions that have prevented Iran from pumping at anywhere near capacity since 2018. Opec said in its latest report that Iran’s crude production in February rose by 44,000 barrels a day (bpd) from January to 2.546 million barrels.