Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh says Iran will continue to ramp up oil production until it returns to levels before sanctions cut its exports.

As he arrived in Vienna ahead of Thursdays meeting of OPEC ministers, Zangeneh said a return to individual producer output quotas is the only way to manage the oil market.

OPEC accepted a Saudi plan to scrap allocating fixed production quotas to member countries in 2011 and introduced an output ceiling which does not specify quotas.

Lately, Saudi Arabia has suggested a production freeze at current output levels despite the fact that there is already up to 2.5 million barrels per day of excess oil in the market.

The Saudi proposal jars with Irans bid to regain its market share through stepped-up oil production but Riyadh has said it would commit itself to a freeze plan only if Tehran joined it.

After talk among Persian Gulf producers that discussions about a new production target could take place on Thursday, Zangeneh said an overall output ceiling "has no benefit for us and other OPEC producers."

"We need to have a country quota but I dont believe it will happen at this meeting," he said, adding the meeting would focus on choosing a new OPEC secretary general to replace Abdullah al-Badri.

Zangeneh said Irans production has risen above 3.8 million barrels a day and is quickly approaching 4 million.

He said Irans oil exports have doubled since the last OPEC meeting in December to about 2.023 million bpd in May.

"A doubling of exports of Iranian oil has had no negative impact on the market and has been absorbed well," Zangeneh said.

"It is encouraging that the oil market is returning to a balanced state despite some sabotage carried out in this period," he added.