Speaking to reporters in Tehran on Monday morning, he said: “Provided that there are no sanctions and the limited resources are allocated to revive wells whose production has been reduced due to the embargoes, daily export of 2.3 million barrels of crude oil is achievable [for Iran].”

"As a minister of a government organ, I never say what I cannot do and I would not make a commitment for myself," he said. "Exporting 2.3 million barrels of oil per day is practical and there is a market for it, and I think the price of oil will not fall.”

The Iranian Minister of Petroleum continued: "I believe that OPEC (the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) has the necessary sensitivity and commitment to maintain oil prices, and the necessary mechanism has been established. It remains to be seen what the fate of the sanctions will be. For the time being, it is not possible to comment on this issue.”

Asked whether OPEC would allow Iran to boost its crude output now that production reduction is on the table given the market conditions and COVID-19 pandemic which has walloped global demand for hydrocarbons, Mr. Zangeneh said: “We will not ask anyone for permission to produce, but we must wait.”

He further said that the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC) functioned as the supervisory committee for OPEC+ and is not a decision-making body.

“They monitor the state of compliance with the production adjustments and are not decision-makers,” he said.

Generally speaking, compliance of the group is good and certain members rightfully expected that those members which had failed to fulfill their commitments in recent months, make up for that in the coming months until March 2021, Mr. Zangeneh added.

No plans to develop new oil, gas fields

Regarding the development of new gas and oil fields, Zangeneh said: "Currently, we have no plans to develop new fields. In the gas sector, our focus is on Bilal, Farzad, South Pars and Kish fields, and in the oil sector, the West Karoun Oil Fields Cluster, Jofeir, Sepehr and Ilam fields are considered.”