Azernews.Az

Iran's daily oil output increased by 200,000 barrels in February, an unnamed official with the Iranian oil ministry said on Saturday.

The country currently produces 2.9 million barrels of oil per day, Fars news agency quoted the official as saying.

The official expressed hope that Iran's daily oil production reach over 3 million barrels in 2013.

However, , the International Energy Agency, the West's energy watchdog, estimated in its monthly report on Feb.13 that Iran lost over $40 billion in export revenues in 2012 or about $3.4 billion per month because sanctions.

The International Energy Agency said last month that Iranian oil output will likely fall further from its lowest in three decades as the West tightens sanctions on the Islamic Republic, depriving Tehran of hard currency revenues.

The international energy monitors say sanctions-battered Iran's oil production has fallen to its lowest level in 23 years.

Analysts believe that even if U.S. and EU sanctions were lifted in the coming weeks Iranian oil output already faces long-term decline.

Despite all this, Iran still has major energy reserves, with proven oil reserves of 137 billion barrels, around 9.3 percent of the global total and 12 percent of OPEC reserves.

Iran also has the world's second largest natural gas reserves, after Russia, of 1,116 trillion cubic feet, most of it offshore in the Persian Gulf. But these remain largely under-developed.