TEHRAN, March 9 (Shana) � Managing Director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Rokneddin Javadi said that Iran has increased its crude oil export to 1.8 million barrels a day.

Speaking at a company meeting on Wednesday, he said that post-sanctions development will be the main item on the oil industry�s agenda during the Fifth Five-Year Economic Development Plan.

He set the 4-billion-barrel output as the next year�s target (starting March 21) and added, �The rising trend of oil exports will continue too.�

Javadi also said that NIOC is required to produce 2 billion barrels of oil a year to be able to carry out its development plans in terms of optimization of production, new explorations, and enhanced oil recovery.

The NIOC chief said that exploration will be the industry�s major policy to materialize the objectives stipulated by the resistive economy and that the new oil contract models are an opportunity to cooperate with foreign firms and upgrade Iranian firms� capacity and performance.

By SHANA