TEHRAN- Iran plans to raise its oil production capacity to 3.96 million barrels per day in the current Iranian calendar year, from 3.8 mbpd last year, according to National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC)’s Managing Director Roknoddin Javadi.

Javadi made the statement in a press conference on the second day of the 20th Oil, Gas, Refining, and Petrochemical Exhibition of Iran (Iran Oil Show 2015), which kicked off on May 6 at the Tehran Permanent International Fairgrounds, with 1,200 Iranian and 600 foreign companies in attendance.

The current Iranian calendar year began on March 21, 2015.

Iran also plans to make $20 billion investment to boost its oil production by over 700,000 bpd by the end of Iranian calendar year 1396 (March 2017-March 2018), the official added.

He said that the country’s oil production capacity would reach 5 mbpd by the end of the Sixth Five-Year National Development Plan (2020).

“We also hope to raise oil production from West Karoun (the five oilfields Iran shares with Iraq) to 250,000 barrels per day by the end of this Iranian year, from the currently 100,000 barrels per day”, Javadi mentioned.

Development of joint oil and gas fields is a priority of the Iranian government.

Iran’s current oil production is estimated to be around 2.7 mbpd, of which about 1 million barrels are exported – as required by the current regime of sanctions. 

With 33.6 trillion cubic meters of natural gas deposit, Iran holds the world’s largest natural gas reserves, according to the latest data from BP.

Iran also holds the world's fourth-largest proven crude oil reserves. The country’s total in-place oil reserves have been estimated at more than 560 billion barrels, with about 140 billion barrels of recoverable oil.