TEHRAN, Sept. 26 (UPI) -- The Iranian Oil Ministry estimates the country is on the verge of exporting 1.3 million barrels of oil per day, a member of a budget commission said.
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh told the ministry's news site Shana last week the government was working with Parliament on enhancing recovery rates at some of Iran's mature oil and gas fields. Appointed in August, he vowed to overhaul an energy sector crippled by Western economic sanctions.
Hossein Ali Haji Delijani, a member of the Iranian Parliament's Planning and Budget Commission, was quoted by the semiofficial Fars News Agency as saying the energy sector was gaining ground.
He said a report submitted to Parliament by Zanganeh indicates export levels are inching closer to the 1.3 million bpd mark.
"At present, we have reached the [export] ceiling of 1.209 million bpd and earned an income of $23 billion in the last six months, which is relatively good," he said Wednesday.
Iran's trading partners can get an exemption from U.S. sanctions if they can show they've cut back on their imports by a "significant" amount.
The Platts news service, the energy arm of publisher McGraw-Hill, said in a survey of oil markets last week Iran was among major producers showing increases in crude oil output.
