Azernews.Az

Senior Iranian oil officials announced that the country plans to increase its daily oil output from the current 3.5 million to 5 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2015, FNA reported.

"Currently, we are producing 3.5 million bpd, while our capacity stands at 4.2 million bpd. We are hoping to raise this to 5.1 million bpd by 2015," Head of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Ahmad Qalebani said on the sidelines of the World Petroleum Congress in Doha.

"Some of this new oil will come from new fields and some from existing ones."

Qalebani said in April Iran faced an output decline of 25,000 bpd over the last year since its reservoirs were in the second half of their lives.

Also with regard to the US and EU sanctions on export of oil technology to Iran, Qalebani said, "We import some of the technology needed (to develop our fields) from abroad."

"Our sales to the EU are not such a big part of the total (oil exports). It is less than 500,000 bpd and is very easy for us to seek alternatives," said Abdolmohammad Delparish, the head of NIOC's integrated planning.

Iranian officials downplay the impact of sanctions, rejecting the idea that foreign investment is needed to develop the vital oil and gas industries.

"We already have the technology needed for these oil investments. Our institutions have been working for years to develop these technologies," said Delparish.