TEHRAN -- An Oil Ministry official announced that in order to maintain its OPEC quota, Iran will increase oil production to eight million barrels per day by 2020.

He said that turning to more efficient methods of oil extraction would be one way to boost oil production capacity by 2020.

The official stated that the amount of natural gas produced during the second and third phases of the South Pars gas field development plan hit 455 million barrels in June 2002.