Iran said it will increase production of oil to full capacity in the next three months if President-elect Joe Biden relaxes sanctions when he takes office in January, according to a report.
President Hassan Rouhani was quoted in state media saying that before President Trump exited the Iranian nuclear deal in 2018 and reimposed crippling sanctions the Islamic Republic had exported more than two million barrels a day, Reuters reported on Sunday.
“The Oil Ministry will take all the necessary steps to prepare the oil industry’s facilities to produce and sell – proportionate to the available capacity – within the next three months,” the news service reporting, citing state-controlled news agency IRNA.
Biden, who takes office on Jan. 20, has said he would ease the sanctions if Tehran returned to “strict compliance with the nuclear deal,” a position that left many Iranians fearing pressure to remove the ayatollahs from power would also subside under a Biden administration.
Iran, according to estimates, exports less than 300,000 barrels of oil per day, compared to 2.8 million barrels in 2018.