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Iran's oil output from major old oil fields in southern parts of the country would increase by 800,000 barrels per day in 2017, Wood Mackenzie expert predicted.

"The country's oil production is mostly increasing from big old southern fields which started producing more than half a century ago such as Ahvaz, Marun and Gachsaran. Compared with the period under sanctions, production from the ageing oil fields could be boosted by more than 800,000 b/d by H2 2017," Homayoun Falakshahi, Middle East Upstream Analyst for Wood Mackenzie told Trend.

"Given the majority of the stored oil is condensate from South Pars and not crude oil, Iran needs to continue boosting production to meet its export targets. Realistically, the country could add 500,000 b/d of production to global markets in 2016, meaning its crude oil exports could average around 1.7 mb/d," he added.

"An uptick in demand growth is likely to be seen in transport, but others sectors such as oil products for power and residential are fundamentally on a decreasing trend, being replaced by gas," Homayoun Falakshahi concluded.

Iran's oil output plunged by more than one million barrels to 2.8 mb/d during a 3-year sanctions, imposed by western countries in 2012. Iran had to shut down some fields, but resumed the output to around 3.3 mb/d in March, three months after lifting sanctions.

Tehran says it would increase this figure to the pre-sanctions level, but most of
international organization, including the Energy Information Administration believe that the country can add only around 0.5 mb/d to its output in 2016 due to the delays in developing new fields and technical problems for resuming output from old fields

Meanwhile, about 80 percent of Iran's active fields are in their second half-life and their production decrease by 8-13 percent annually.

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