Reuters: Iran’s oil production capacity will fall by five percent a year without new investment, a senior oil official was quoted on Sunday as saying by the Iran’s student news agency ISNA. TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran’s oil production capacity will fall by five percent a year without new investment, a senior oil official was quoted on Sunday as saying by the Iran’s student news agency ISNA.
Iranian officials have previously put production capacity at a little more than 4 million barrels per day (bpd), with actual output — limited to a quota set by the oil cartel OPEC — running at a little below 4 million bpd.
“At the moment, on average, we produce four million bpd of crude. But without new investment, five percent of this production capacity will be gone every year,” ISNA quoted the managing director of Pars Oil and Gas Company, Akbar Torkan, as saying.
Industry experts say sanctions imposed for years by the United States, Iran’s long-time foe, and U.N. sanctions slapped on the country since December in a dispute over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, are deterring foreign investors.
But experts also say that Iran’s windfall earnings as oil prices surge to near record levels have helped it keep production capacity steady using its own resources.
A senior Iranian oil official said in May that the world’s fourth biggest oil exporter needed at least $100 billion of foreign cash over the next decade to boost output by 1 million bpd to a target of 5 million bpd.
