Iran is pressing ahead with plans to ramp up its domestic oil production capacity by 1mn b/d over the coming four years despite lingering Western sanctions. It expects crude output boosts at fields close to the Iraqi border, and those shared with Iraq, to provide the lion’s share.

“We are planning a wide range of activities over the coming months aimed at increasing our production capacity by 1mn b/d of crude oil,” Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said at the opening of Iran’s annual Oil and Gas Show in Tehran this week. “In less than four years we want to hit this target… If we Iranians succeed in doing this, it will be our biggest achievement in the history of Iran’s oil sector.” (CONTINUED - 618 WORDS)