Iranian officials have confirmed their country's ability to export crude anywhere, stressing that sanctions on Tehran will not affect Iran's petrochemical industry.
The Iranian news agency IRNA quoted Oil Minister Javad Oji as saying, "At one time, foreigners used to set a ceiling for the production and export of crude, but Iranian oil industry specialists can now export Iranian crude and gas condensate wherever they want."
The Iranian oil minister said during the inauguration ceremony of the "Iran Plast International Exhibition" that his ministry provides support to petrochemical companies and is always working to address their problems.
"The government is accumulating gases associated with oil and using them to serve the petrochemical industries. We will not allow the Iranian people's resources to be burned in torches in vain."
The Iranian minister explained that the volume of production of crude oil and gas condensate in his country is 3.3 million barrels per day at present.
Javad Oji said last month that the country's crude oil production would reach 3.4 million barrels per day by the end of September, despite the continuation of U.S. sanctions.
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Morteza Shah Mirzaei, CEO of the National Iranian Petrochemical Company, said the ban fails to confuse Iran's petrochemical industry.
He added that the increasing number of foreign guests for Iran Plast meant that economic threats and sanctions had no impact on Iran's petrochemical industry.
Mirzaei explained that the volume of domestic production in the petrochemical sector has increased, from 1.5 million tons to more than 92 million tons per year during the past 46 years.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump in 2018 withdrew from a nuclear deal with Tehran and reimposed sanctions on Iran, whose crude oil output fell to an average of 2.4 million barrels per day in 2021.
Before U.S. sanctions in 2018, Iran's average daily oil production was 3.8 million barrels per day, and was OPEC's third-largest producer after Saudi Arabia and Iraq.