In another blow to Nigeria’s mono economy, Iran says it will emphasize regaining oil sales it lost due to sanctions over helping to prop up prices once curbs that choked off the nation’s crude exports are lifted.
The Persian Gulf producer plans to restore output to the level it achieved before the economic curbs crippled production and exports, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said Monday in Tehran.
Iran wants to pump almost 4 million barrels a day within seven months once sanctions are removed and 4.7 million as soon as possible after that, he said.
Such an increase may cause oil prices to fall, Zanganeh told reporters after meeting with Germany’s Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel. “But that doesn’t mean we won’t enter our oil into the market.”
Iran had the second-biggest output in OPEC before the European Union banned purchases of its crude in July 2012.
The country is now fourth-largest in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, with output in June averaging 2.85 million barrels a day compared with 3.6 million at the end of 2011,