Press TV- Iran says its production of oil has reached around 4 million barrels per day (mb/d) – a yet another indication that the country is regaining its crude production abilities after multiple years of sanctions.

The announcement was made by Gholam-Reza Manouchehri, the deputy for development and engineering affairs of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC).

Manouchehri told the domestic media that the country was already on the way to make a stronger oil market recovery, emphasizing that this would be expedited through the development of several key projects within the next few years.

He named South Azadegan as a crucial project over which Iran was negotiating with several global energy giants.  The official emphasized that a tender for the development of South Azadegan – which is located in the oil-rich southwestern province of Khouzestan - would be held next month.

Manouchehri said that the NIOC expects Chinese companies to team up with European giants over South Azadegan. He added that they would have to also bring an Iranian company on board under the regulations for the new format of Iranian oil-sector contracts.

South Azadegan was discovered in 2001 and was described at the time as the world’s biggest oil find in decades.  It has recoverable reserves of about 2 billion barrels.

Located in a former theater of Iran-Iraq war (1980-88), South Azadegan is believed to be connected with Iraq’s supergiant Majnoon oil field which has recoverable reserves of 13 billion barrels which was also being developed by Shell and is now producing 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil for Iraq.

Iran has already signed five heads of agreement with companies including Shell, Total, Inpex for the development of South Azadegan.