TEHRAN, Sept. 9 (UPI) -- The Iranian government aims to overhaul the way it drafts oil contracts in an effort to increase production, the oil minister said Monday.
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said he would work to lay the groundwork so Iran could cooperate better with international oil companies. He said he was determined to hit a target rate of 4 million barrels per day for oil production during his term, which began last month.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said in last month's market report Iran produced approximately 2.6 million barrels per day in July.
"Our position in OPEC has been weakened and the only way to boost it will be to increase production capacity, actual production level," he was quoted Monday as saying by the Oil Ministry's Shana news website.
Zangeneh said he was working to revise oil contracts in an effort to stimulate recovery from Iranian oil production.
"Structural changes to oil contracts are aimed at increasing recovery rate of the existing reservoirs," he said.
Iran was once the No. 2 oil producer among members of OPEC. It's fallen to the No. 6 spot.
