Iran has regained its pre-sanctions position in the OPEC crude oil production table with an increase of more than 1 million barrels per day, said a senior official of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC).

Iran PressIran News: Last week, the Monthly Oil Market Report (MOMR) of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) showed that Iran regained its position as the third-largest crude oil producer in August.

Addressing the NIOC-Insurance Companies Forum on Wednesday, the NIOC managing director Mohsen Khojastehmehr said that Iran’s oil production stood at 2.25m bpd when the 13th administration took office while the figure has now reached 3.3m bpd and will hit 3.4m bpd within the next 10 days.

“We have increased oil output by over 1m bpd as we are convinced that domestic production generates wealth,” added the official.

The country’s oil production will soar to 5.7m bpd and gas output will reach 1.5 billion cubic meters per day (bcf/d) by the next eight years, he stated.

Khojastehmehr said the attraction of investors is the main factor for achieving the production target, adding $160 billion should be invested in oil and gas production projects.

He added 100 investment opportunities in the oil and gas industry will be offered in a conference in a couple of weeks, adding NIOC welcomes insurance companies’ participation in the upstream sector of the oil industry.

“We have also tried to change the banks’ role from lending organizations to investors,” he pointed out.

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