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

According to the report, Iran’s August oil output rose 143,000 barrels from a month earlier – the highest increase in the table – hitting 3 million barrels per day (bpd), following top producer Saudi Arabia and Iraq, respectively.

Addressing the NIOC-Insurance Companies Forum, Mohsen Khojastehmehr added 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,” underlined 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 added.

Khojastehmehr said 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 said 100 investment opportunities in 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 oil industry.

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

A multibillion-dollar contract on the integrated development of Azadegan oil field will be signed in the near future.

Earlier, Fereydoun Kord-Zanganeh, (NIOC) director of investment and business development, who also attended the forum said a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was before signed and Dasht Azadegan Arvand Company was set up with a $7 billion investment made by two Iranian exploration and production (E&P) companies and eight banks to implement the Azadegan project.