Iran's oil output breaks 5-year record

According to Bloomberg, over the last year or so, Iran has been able to boost its oil production to a five-year high of about 3.2 million barrels a day, earning billions of dollars in the process. And that’s despite draconian US sanctions precisely targeting, at least on paper, Iran’s oil industry.

According to the International Energy Agency, Iran produced, on average, 445,000 barrels a day more in 2023 than it did the year before. As such, Iran was the world’s second-largest source of oil production growth last year, only behind the US shale industry.

Iran earned more than $10 billion over the past five years from producing the oil.

In addition, last year Iran sold about 80 million barrels of crude oil and other petroleum products stored on its oil tankers. This sale probably generated about $5 billion in additional revenue.

In its last monthly report, the IEA warned: “Iran could post a fourth straight year of annual growth in 2024 if it can sustain recent production rates.”