Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said on state television on April 6 that the country's crude output within a year will reach the presanctions peak of 4 million barrels a day.
Iran's oil exports by March 2017 will reach 2.25 million barrels a day, thanks to the lifting of economic sanctions in January under Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers, he said.
Exports already surpassed 2 million barrels this month, he said.
Sanctions imposed on Iran in early 2012 by the United States and European Union over its nuclear program had cut crude exports from a peak of 2.5 million barrels before 2011 to just over 1 million barrels.
Zanganeh comments come as Russia and the OPEC oil cartel have been pushing for an across-the-board output freeze by major world oil producers to try to stabilize collapsing oil prices. Iran has refused the join that freeze.
