MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th January, 2021) Iranian oil companies have signed eight agreements worth a total of $1.2 billion with the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) to increase the volume of the national oil production, the NIOC said on Monday.
"Eight agreements have been signed within the project on storage and strengthening of oil output capacity, assessed at $1.2 billion, between the National Iranian Oil Company and Iran's contractors," the NIOC said.
On December 9, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that Iran was planning to sell over 2.3 million barrels of oil each day next year, despite the United States' sanctions that targeted Iran's petroleum ministry and the National Iranian Oil Company over financial support they allegedly provided to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which the US regards as a terrorist group. On December 14, Iranian Petroleum Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh said that Iran "will not ask somebody for permission to increase oil production."
On January 5, the OPEC+ alliance agreed to limit the volume of their oil production to 7.2 million barrels a day in January to 7.125 mb/d in February and 7.05 mb/d in March. However, Russia and Kazakhstan were allowed to slightly increase production over the next two months by 65,000 and 10,000 barrels a day respectively.
Concerns have been voiced that Iran's decision to boost its oil output and export may undermine the OPEC+ states' efforts aimed to stabilize the oil market and to increase oil prices that dropped following the decrease in global demand caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
