"In the coming two weeks, the production of oil at offshore and onshore fields in Iran will grow by a total of 150,000 barrels. By the end of September, another 100,000 barrels will be added to the current output, and the oil production in Iran will reach 3.5 million barrels per day by the end of the month," Khojasteh-Mehr was quoted as saying by local media.
In May, Iranian Petroleum Minister Javad Owji said that the country's daily oil production had exceeded 3 million barrels per day. In July, the minister said that Iran intended to further ramp up its oil and natural gas production.
The Iranian Petroleum Ministry and the NIOC are responsible for exploration, production, transportation, processing and export of oil and natural gas in Iran. The NIOC was established in 1948 and is currently the third largest oil and gas company in the world after Saudi Aramco and Russia's Gazprom. The company is headquartered in Tehran and the Iranian state owns 100% of its shares. The NIOC's production capabilities are estimated at over 4 million barrels of oil and over 500 million cubic meters (17.6 billion cubic feet) of gas per day.