Eurasia Press & News
Iran, the world’s number four crude producer, is aiming for oil export revenues of about $70 billion in the year to March, after it received about $35 billion in the first half of the year, an Iranian oil official said on Monday. Iran earned about $60 billion the previous year, Mohammad Ali Khatibi, deputy head of marketing at state-owned National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), was quoted by state television as saying.
Iran, like other oil producers, has benefited from windfall earnings as crude prices have leapt. US crude hit a record above $93 a barrel on Monday, although Iranian crudes tend to trade at a discount of several dollars below the international benchmark.
“Crude oil and oil product export revenues in the first half of the current year was about $34.7 billion and we hope it reaches to about $70 billion by the end of the year,” Khatibi said. The Iranian year runs to March.
Iran, the second biggest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), produces about 4 million barrels of oil a day.
