TEHRAN (Tasnim) � Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh announced that the country�s development projects in all of the oil fields in the massive offshore South Pars will be completed in three years.

�Those who think Iran cannot raise its (oil) production, should wait and see (how Iran do so),� Zanganeh said in a televised interview broadcast live on Saturday night.

�We are able to increase oil production by 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) anytime we decide to do so,� he added.

�We will finish all 23 oil fields that we have in South Pars in a three-year period,� the Iranian oil minister noted.

Commenting on the development plans to increase crude oil production, Zanganeh said Iran has defined $70 billion projects which will triple the country's crude oil production.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Namdar Zanganeh pointed to Iran�s plans to increase exports of� gas, saying that the exports to neighboring countries is top of the agenda of his ministry.

South Pars is part of a wider gas field that is shared with Qatar. The larger field covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, 3,700 square kilometers of which are in Iran's territorial waters (South Pars) in the Persian Gulf.

By Tasnim News Agency