Iran’s crude oil exports rise past pre-sanctions levels

According to two sources accessed by Reuters, crude oil exports reached 2.8 million barrels per day (bpd) in September, Vestnik Kavkaza reported. This exceeds the pre-sanctions averages of 2.5 to 2.6 million bpd in 2011.

During the oil sanctions (which started in 2011 and ended on January 16 this year) exports were restricted to around 1 million bpd.

On October 4, Hungary’s international gas company MOL announced that it had commissioned 140,000 tons of Iranian heavy crude oil. This is the first time MOL has purchased oil from Iran since the sanctions were lifted.

It was reported that British Petroleum (BP) joined Hungary the next day when it agreed to buy Iranian natural-gas condensate. Bloomberg said that "the sale is a milestone for OPEC’s third-largest producer, which has been ravaged by sanctions targeting its nuclear program.”

As these developments progressed, Iran’s Oil Ministry worked to boost its oil production to levels that haven’t been seen since the 1979 Iranian Revolution. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, the Iranian government signed a $2.2 billion contract with Tadbir Energy, which is controlled by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

As Iran moves in the "opposite direction of its supposed cartel partners” in OPEC, it hopes to increase production output from current levels of 3.6 million bpd to 5.7 million bpd by 2020.