Iran boasts to OPEC of growing crude sales despite sanctions  

Iran boasts to OPEC of growing crude sales despite sanctions  

Iran's Oil Minister Javad Owji talked up his country's crude sales in speeches at a summit of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in Vienna this week, as Tehran is seen shipping out oil while robust sanctions still remain in place.  

Owji told one meeting, according to the IRNA News Agency, that Iran's current daily capacity hovers around 3.8 million barrels of crude and gas condensates, with the figure for sour gas at one million.    

The minister declared that in the past 20 months, the Islamic Republic has managed to secure deals worth $40 billion with its regional ally Russia and neighboring nations.  

Tehran has been under a host of crippling sanctions since Washington ditched the multilateral nuclear deal with Iran in 2018. Following the departure, the administration of then-US President Donald Trump pledged to eliminate Iran's oil income through penalties for buyers. However, data — and not just from Iranian sources — indicate that Tehran has been crawling back into the market. In recent months, Iran's oil exports have hit a five-year high, according to The Wall Street Journal, as cheaper Iranian oil draws in customers, especially China, at a moment when such energy giants as Saudi Arabia have been cutting back