Will Iran Continue Increasing Its Oil Production?

With oil sanctions now a distant memory, Iran is drastically upping its oil production levels. And according to the nation’s oil minister, productivity isn’t set to waver anytime soon. With output freeze talks looming, Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh has confirmed that Iran will not engage in an embargo. Instead, it will continue to increase both production and export levels until it hits pre-sanction figures.  

Iran refuses to play ball

The announcement came in the wake of the April 17 meeting, which will see both OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers converge in Doha. Without participation from Iran, analysts are concerned that other key oil producers will refrain from joining a freeze agreement. Already leading media groups such as Bloomberg have published comments from Saudi Arabia’s deputy crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, with the leader maintaining that the Saudis will refuse to participate without involvement from Iran.  

Tehran shuns a desperate bid to stabilise the market

With oil prices dropping by up to 70% since 2014, putting an end to the global glut is becoming increasingly important. However without participation from Iran, stabilising the market could prove difficult. Currently, the country churns out 2.93 million barrels per day. With sanctions lifted in January, it has its sights set on hitting the 4-million-barrel mark. Until then, Zanganeh has urged major oil producers to “leave us alone” and allow Iran to regain its market share.

Meanwhile, Zanganeh has publically put forward his support for a freeze, commenting that “the agreement between the world’s top OPEC and non-OPEC exporters such as Saudi Arabia and Russia to freeze output at January levels is a positive step”.

Maintaining standards

With a production spike on the horizon, Iran must ensure that its safety standards are second to none. For more insight into how this side of the oil production industry is regulated, ‘Control Systems Offer Enhanced Operation and Monitoring Functions for Greater Efficiency and Safety’ offers an in-depth overview of operational challenges faced by plant facilities. Thanks to the next generation of CENTUM series technology, managers can now keep a real-time watch on operations. Featuring enhanced functionality, the intuitive CENTUM VP® R6.02 creates perceptive visualisations of plant operating status, and can be tightly integrated with the latest version (R4.01) of the ProSafe®-RS safety instrumented system. The result is powerful field control stations capable of processing data faster and more reliably.