Angelina Rascouet
(Bloomberg) — Iran could raise oil exports by 1 million barrels a day without international sanctions, its oil minister said, as talks resumed with the U.S. over the nation’s nuclear program.
“If sanctions are lifted, we can raise our exports by one million barrels per day within a few months,” Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said Monday in Assaluyeh, Iran. The Persian Gulf nation shipped 1.2 million barrels a day last month, the International Energy Agency said in a March 13 report.
Iran and world powers are negotiating an agreement to end a decade-long dispute over the Persian Gulf country’s nuclear program. Diplomats from the U.S. and Iran, working toward an end-March deadline, resumed talks Monday in Lausanne, Switzerland.
“If we get an announcement of a framework deal within the next couple of weeks, obviously from a market psychology, we’re going to have a bearish knee-jerk reaction,” Mike Wittner, the head of oil market research in New York for Societe Generale SA, said by phone. It’s unclear when sanctions might end and it would take six months to a year for Iran to add a million barrels a day, he said.
Brent crude, the global benchmark, plunged by 61 percent in the seven months through mid-January because of concern about oversupply. Brent futures dropped to $52.50 by 6:32 p.m in London on Monday on the ICE Futures Europe exchange, the lowest since Feb. 2. WTI slumped to $42.85 in New York, a six-year low.
“It may be that Iran simply can’t say yes to the kind of deal that the international community is looking for,” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said at the weekend.
Iran is the fifth-largest producer in OPEC, pumping 2.78 million barrels a day in February, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
