Iran’s Parliament on Monday passed part of a comprehensive development bill that outlines a vision for the country’s oil and gas production for the next five years.
The government presented the 7th Development Plan to Parliament on June 18. Since then, lawmakers have held 15 sessions to discuss the bill whose Article 42 sets quantitative targets the oil and gas industries must achieve in a five-year timespan.
According to the hefty bill, Iran’s crude output will see a 37% growth to reach from 3.1 million barrels per day (bpd) to 4.45 million bpd. For natural gas extraction, a 24% surge is expected to happen with daily production to exceed 1.2 billion cubic meters from the current output of 1 billion cubicmeters.
In order to overcome fuel shortages, the motion obliges the Oil Ministry to produce 129 million liters of gasoline per day, 11% up from the current daily output of 116 million liters.
The deputies also gave their approval to a section of the bill’s Article 44 which allows the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) to sign deals with neighboring countries to jointly develop shared oilfields.
Over the past two years, Iran has boosted its oil output and sales in an effort to regain its footing in the global oil market as a founding member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
Iran’s crude exports topped 1.9 million bpd in August, a high not seen in more than five years, after US sanctions curtailed the country’s oil flow under 1 million bpd.