TEHRAN: Iran’s total crude oil and condensate sales likely reached around 2.8 million barrels per day (MMbbl/d) in September, two sources with knowledge of the matter said, nearly matching a 2011 peak in shipments before sanctions were imposed on the OPEC producer. The run-up from shipments of around 2.5 MMbbl/d in August comes mainly from condensate, a light oil excluded from OPEC supply quotas that is often produced with natural gas and can be used to make naphtha for petrochemical production.
Iran sold 600,000 bbl/d of condensate for September—up from about 350,000 bbl/d in August and including about 100,000 bbl/d shipped from storage—to meet robust demand in Asia, the two sources said. September crude exports increased slightly from the previous month to about 2.2 MMbbl/d, they said. Iran, along with Libya and Nigeria, is allowed to produce “at maximum levels that make sense” as part of any output limits in a surprise deal reached last week by OPEC.
