Iran breaks 10-year record in oil exports: Minister

Iran’s Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad says oil exports from the country have reached a new record high despite a continued regime of US sanctions that seeks to cut Iran’s oil exports to zero.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a Cabinet session in Tehran, Paknejad said that oil exports from Iran broke a 10-year record in the calendar month to January 19.

“We announce this news to make our people happy,” he said without elaborating on export figures.

Data by international tanker tracking services released in early January suggested that Iran had ramped up its oil exports in the second half of December.

Earlier data published in October showed that oil exports from Iran had reached an average of over 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) in that month.

That was 1 million bpd more than a five-year record reported in May.

Iran has been supplying a bulk of its crude oil to private buyers in China in the past years to avoid US sanctions that restrict deliveries to state buyers.

Paknejad reacted to a decision by US President Donald Trump late on Tuesday to re-impose its so-called maximum pressure policy on Iran.

He said that Iran will come up with new solutions to maintain and increase its oil exports despite threats by a new US administration to pressure the country.

“If the sanctions persist, we will continue to have strategies to deal with the situation,” said the minister.

Paknejad called Washington’s maximum pressure campaign on Iran “a failed theory”, adding that if the Americans want to retest the patience of the Iranian people, they will suffer a defeat.

Iranian Oil Ministry estimates suggest oil production in the country will soon reach a record high of nearly 4 million bpd.

That comes as Iran’s total oil production was at around 3.9 million bpd before Washington imposed its sanctions in 2018.

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