MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Iran expects to increase its oil exports by 500,000 barrels a day by the end of November or early December with deliveries to Asian countries, the head of the National Iranian Oil Company said on Thursday.
Iranian oil imports to Asian countries, such as China and South Korea, which had expressed their interest in the Iranian oil supplies, will begin sooner than to the Western, Ali Kardor was cited by The Wall Street Journal.
Kardor also said that at the next Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) meeting, which is to be held in December in Vienna, the country would insist on its full return to the crude oil market.
In June, US Energy Information Agency (EIA) revealed that Western sanctions imposed on Tehran over its nuclear program have nearly halved Iran's crude oil export revenue since 2011. Previously, OPEC revealed that Tehran had substantially decreased petroleum exports.
In July, Iran signed an historic nuclear deal with the P5+1 group of international mediators, comprising Russia, the United States, China, the United Kingdom, France and Germany.
Under the agreement, among other points, Tehran is obliged to cut back its uranium enrichment and decrease the number of centrifuges in the country. In exchange, the West is obliged to gradually lift sanctions imposed on the Islamic republic, including resumption of exports and frozen energy projects.
