Iran Says $50bln Investment Needed to Develop Oil Production


Iran Says $50bln Investment Needed to Develop Oil Production

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iran’s oil minister said there is need for about $50 billion in investment to develop the country’s oil output.

“We need 40 to 50 billion dollars of investment to develop the country’s oil production,” Bijan Zangeneh said, adding that it cannot be supplied domestically and should be provided via foreign contracts.

He further referred to the reduction of Iran’s oil output to less than 1 million bpd in the sanctions era, saying that now the country’s oil production “has returned to the pre-sanctions level.”

Iran’s crude oil production is expected to grow to 4 million bpd by the end of the current Iranian year, March 20, 2018, the chief executive of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), Ali Kardor, told Iran’s news agency Tasnim on Tuesday.

Iran is currently pumping over 3.8 million bpd of oil, the manager added. Exports of crude oil and gas condensates now exceed 2.6 million bpd, but are further expected to increase as the country plans to raise its output in the second half this year and in early 2018.

OPEC’s third-largest producer, Iran, is not reducing production under the OPEC output cut deal. The country has argued in the talks that it needed to restore the market share which it had lost to Western sanctions on its oil exports.

Earlier this month, NIOC’s Kardor said that Iran planned to increase its crude oil production to 4.5 million bpd by 2022.

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