Azernews.Az

By Nigar Abbasova

Working to boost its output and export levels to regain its market share, Iran is keen to increase its supplies to the world’s energy majors -- Anglo-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell and British Petroleum.

The national oil company of the resource-rich Islamic Republic (NIOC) signed new spot oil export contracts with the companies to provide them with oil and gas condensates, while the talks on the conclusion of long-term contracts are currently underway.

NIOC director of international affairs Mohsen Ghamsari said that the company works to increase the level of supplies, adding that the first cargo of gas condensate and crude oil was sold to the companies earlier this year. So far, several batches with the total volume of nearly 1 billion barrels were sold to each company.

Commenting on the increase of oil sales to Shell and BP, the official said that he was optimistic about the outcome of the talks, adding that there are no limitations to reach the objective.

The country earlier offered some 52 new oil and gas development projects to be developed by foreign investors with local partners. The worth of the projects, which are offered under the new IPC format (Integrated petroleum contract), is estimated at some $30 billion.

Long-standing international sanctions cut Iran's oil exports by more than half to around 1.1 million barrels per day from a pre-2012 level of 2.5 million bpd.

The current level of production is close to 4 million barrels per day, almost the same as before sanctions were imposed.

The exception of the country from the recently-reached oil reduction deal by OPEC and several non-cartel producers became an oil diplomacy victory for the country. Iran’s oil production increased by 18.8 percent to 3.92 million barrels per day in January-September 2016, while its September output was the highest since late 1980s, according to US Energy Information Agency.

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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova

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