TEHRAN // Boosting Iran's crude production is one of the Oil Ministry's top priorities, the ministry's Shana news website reported, citing Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi.
Crude output must increase by 1 million barrels a day by 2013, Qasemi said at a meeting with officials in the southern city of Ahwaz, according to Shana. Iran, the second-biggest producer in OPEC, pumped 3.6 million barrels of oil a day in August, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Steps planned for boosting production include developing new oil fields and deposits that Iran shares with its neighbors, using secondary methods of recovery such as gas injection and installing desalination units and other processing facilities, Qasemi said.
He reiterated his ministry's plans to sell bonds worth 1 trillion Iranian rials ($94 million) in the current Iranian calendar year, which started on March 21, to pay for oil projects, according to the report published yesterday.
Ladane Nasseri // Bloomberg.
