Iran has discovered major reserves of shale oil in the western parts of the country with a top official saying that the reserves are the first that have a feasible potential for production.

Too expensive crude oil does increase revenues of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) but would ultimately damage their economies because the rivals will increase output at high oil prices, Iranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh said.

Iran expects its oil production to reach 4 million barrels per day by mid-April, and plans to drill 500 new wells over the next five years to raise output to 4.7 million bpd, a senior oil official said on Saturday.

Iran will begin exporting 100,000b/d of crude oil to Russia within the next two week, Iranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh said.

The petroleum ministers of Iran and Iraq have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for cooperation in various oil and gas-related grounds.

A senior petroleum official says employing the newly-devised Iran petroleum contracts (IPC) is crucial for enhancing recover of oil and gas from Irans reserves.

Senior executives from the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group) met to discuss avenues for furthering cooperation in upstream projects.

Managing Director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Ali Kardor says Iran will need to drill at least 500 wells to reach the output envisaged by the 6th five-year development plan of the country to 2022.

Belarus’s BelOil Polska had purchased 600,000 barrels of Iranian Light and Heavy crude oil from National Iranian Oil Company .

Polands second-biggest refiner Lotos is eying for sealing a long-term oil supply deal with Iran.