“Iran faces no obstacle to its oil sales and is bringing its crude price closet to world prices,” underlined the minister.

Although sanctions imposed on Iran are now tougher than those in 2018, the country’s oil exports have hit record high since then, he pointed out.

Owji, who made the remarks during the signing ceremony of contracts for boosting pressure in the South Pars (SP) gas field in the Persian Gulf, said the Oil Ministry under the 13th administration has paid due attention to the project, which had been left undecided by the previous governments.

According to the top official, 28 platforms, 14 pressure-boosting and 14 logistics platforms, will operate in seven areas to carry out the prioritized offshore project.

Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC) and several Iranian companies, including Oil Industries Engineering and Construction (OIEC), Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters, and MAPNA Group signed the contracts.

Based on a plan outlined by the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), the pressure-boosting platforms will start their operations by the next four years, he continued.

The South Pars field holds 50 percent of Iran’s gas reserves, meeting 70 percent of the country’s gas needs and supplying 45 percent of domestic oil refineries’ feedstock, said the oil minister, adding extraction from the joint field will continue for 70 years after the pressure-boosting platforms are put into operation.

Owji said $20 billion will be invested in the project to extract 90 trillion cubic feet of gas and two billion barrels of gas condensates, which will generate $900 billion in revenue.

Shifting to the Extraordinary Ministerial Meeting of the 7th Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) Summit of Heads of State and Government held in Algiers, the capital of Algeria, on March 1, the minister said the average annual increase in Iran’s gas production from 2012 to 2022 was over two times the average rise in the global output in spite of brutal sanctions imposed on the country, adding Iran registered a five percent rise while the global increase stood at 2.5 percent.

He also referred to the increase in domestic oil output and added extraction from 58 fields of southwestern province of Khuzestan has jumped one million barrels per day (bpd) since the 13th administration took office in August 2021.

The volume of oil extracted from Khuzestan’s fields amounted to 1.7m bpd when the 13th administration took over while the figure now stands at 2.7m bpd, he explained.

Owji touched upon the inauguration of the first phase of Khuzestan’s Sepehr and Jofeir oil fields on Friday, which added 50,000 barrels to Iran’s daily oil production capacity, and said the West Karoun region is home to nine oil fields, out of which six, including Azadegan and Yadavaran, are shared with Iraq.

The current extraction from the West Karoun fields amounts to 450,000 barrels of oil and 130 million cubic feet per day, mentioned the minister, concluding that the second phase of the South Azadegan development project will come on stream by summer 2024 and its daily production will rise to 200,000 barrels.