Tehran plans to boost oil output

TEHRAN, Iran, Dec 2, (AP): Iran’s oil minister has said the country plans to increase its oil production capacity to up to 5.2 million barrels per day by early 2016.

A Sunday report by state TV quotes Rostam Ghasemi as saying this requires some $300 billion investment in the oil ministry secretary Karunatillaka Amunugama told the paper.

He said the authorities were working out the details. Sri Lanka’s petroleum authorities were not immediately available for comment.

Sri Lanka has relied on Iran for 92 percent of its crude oil requirements.

Last week, Sri Lanka announced that it industry.

He says current capacity is about four million barrels per day.

The remarks come as the country is struggling to sell crude oil due to Western sanctions over its disputed nuclear program, which the West suspects has a military dimension. Iran will set aside two billion rupees ($15.38 million) owed to Iran for oil imports and will use the money to finance an irrigation scheme on the island which is funded by Tehran.

Iran had pledged some $450 million for the project in 2008 but implementation has been slack due to a delay in transferring funds from Tehran due to the sanctions. denies the charge.

According to the International Energy Agency, Iran’s oil exports plunged to 1 million barrels a day in July, after standing at the 1.74-million-barrel mark a month earlier. Crude oil exports account for about 80 percent of the country’s foreign revenue.

The US said it introduced the latest sanctions out of concern that Iran was pressing ahead with its nuclear weapons drive despite earlier sanctions that had been hailed as the toughest-ever against the Islamic republic.

Tehran insists its nuclear programme is only for civilian use and refuses to abandon its uranium enrichment activities.