Iran says oil exports reach highest level since U.S. reimposed sanction in 2018

TEHRAN, March 12 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Oil Minister Javad Owji said on Sunday the country's crude exports have reached the highest level since the reimposition of U.S. sanctions in 2018, reported the official news agency IRNA.

Owji said Iran's crude exports have increased by 83 million barrels from the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year, which started on March 21, 2022 to Feb. 19, 2023, compared to the same period in 2021-2022.

It also showed a 190-million-barrel increase from the same time span in 2020-2021, he added, without revealing the exact number of Iran's total crude exports.

The Iranian oil minister claimed that the country's gas exports have witnessed a year-on-year rise of 15 percent in the current Iranian calendar year, noting that Iran has raked in 6.5 billion U.S. dollars from its liquefied petroleum gas exports since March 2022.

In May 2018, the United States intensified its sanctions on Iran, mainly targeting the country's oil exports and banking sector, following its unilateral withdrawal from a 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The talks on the JCPOA's revival began in April 2021 in Vienna. No breakthrough had been achieved after the latest round of talks in early August 2022.