[caption id="attachment_56406" align="alignright" width="206"] The Managing-director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Roknoddin Javadi[/caption]

TEHRAN March 03(Shana)--The Managing-director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) said Iran's crude oil production capacity stands at 4 million barrels a day.

Addressing a national congress on the drilling industry here in Tehran on Tuesday, Roknoddin Javadi said the country's output stands at a much lower level as a result of the international sanctions on Iran's oil industry.

He said Iran's crude oil output is expected to plateau at 4.7 mb/d by the end of the 5th development plan.
"Iran can currently recover 660 million cubic meters of gas and plans are under way for its production to cross a billion cubic meters by the end of the 5th development plan," said the official.
Javadi said Iran poised to start deep-water drilling operations in the near future.
Currently 150 drilling rigs are operating in Iran's offshore and onshore fields with the annual operation costs of 4 billion dollars which is nearly 30% of the total costs of the country petroleum industry development.
Javadi added that 50% of the rigs in Iran are being operated by private entities while prior to the Islamic Revolution all the rigs were handled by foreign companies.

By SHANA