Iranian heavy oil price increased by US$2.45 in January 2023
registering slightly more than 3% increase as compared to December 2022,
according to OPEC’s latest monthly report published on February 14, 2023.
The Iranian heavy crude oil price reached US$81.56 per barrel
in the first month of 2023, compared to US$79.11 per barrel in December 2022.
According to the report, the country’s average heavy crude
price came to US$85.59 in 2022.
The average price of Iranian oil in the first month of 2023
registered a decrease of US$4.03 compared to the same month in 2022. The price
of Iranian heavy crude in the first month of 2022 was US$85.59 per barrel, at
an average.
The report put Iranian crude output for January 2023 at
2.557 million barrels per day (bpd) indicating a 22,000 bpd decrease as compared
to the figure for the previous month.
Based on OPEC data, the country’s average crude output in
the last quarter of 2022 was reported at 2.567 million bpd indicating a nearly
2,000 bpd rise as compared to the average figure for the year’s third quarter.
OPEC basket price also increased by US$1.94 or 2.4 percent
to settle at US$81.62 a barrel in January 2023 as compared to the earlier month.
Iranian heavy crude oil prices had followed an upward trend
from the beginning of 2022 up to June, however, following the increase in
production by OPEC members and the fading of the pandemic impacts on the global
economy, the prices started to fall in late 2022.
Despite
the negative impacts of the US sanctions, Iran has been ramping up its oil production
and exports over the past few months.
Earlier this month, Iranian Oil Minister Javad Oji said the
country’s income from the sales of oil, natural gas, gas condensate, and
petroleum products in the first 10 months of the current Iranian year increased
by 40% as compared to the same period last year.
Addressing an open session of the parliament on February 01,
Oji said that 70 million barrels of gas condensate were exported in the
mentioned time span.
According to the official, the goals set in the current
year’s national budget bill for the exports of oil and gas will definitely be
achieved by the yearend.
He noted that the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has
already sold enough oil and gas and petroleum products to realize the budget
goals by 100%, however, collecting the revenues needs more time.
Back in January 2023, the US Energy Information
Administration (EIA) in a report put Iran’s average oil production in 2022 at
2.54 million bpd, 140,000 bpd more than the previous year.
Iran's oil production in 2021 was about 2.4 million bpd.
