Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh said that Iran will continue the policy of maximum production from the joint oil and gas fields and that it has plans to enhance recovery from the fields in the post-sanctions era. “Even during sanctions period (forced reduction in production), we had laid the principle that the reduction shall not include the joint fields,” he said in a televised interview with the national Channel One news bulletin. “During these years which we launched five South Pars phases, it meant an increased production of 150 million cubic meters of gas and 200,000 barrels of gas condensates from the joint field,” Zangeneh added. “Our next priority is oil production from West Karoun fields so that in the next eight months, production will touch 200,000 barrels a day and will increase to 700,000 barrels by the end of the Sixth Five-Year Development Plan.” “We also hope to increase production of condensates in South Pars field to one million barrels a day by the end of current government’s term,” the minister said. Zangeneh stressed development of petrochemical industry among the downstream projects and said that in less than 20 years, the value of petchem products multiplied from one billion dollars to 18 billion dollars. “In few years, it will catch up to 26 billion dollars and by the end Fifth Development Plan it will hit above 40 billion dollars,” he said. “In the field of refineries, it is decided that the capacity will be boosted from the current 1.7 million barrels a day to 3 million barrels,” Zangeneh added. He anticipated that with continuation of support programs for the production chain, petrochemical production can hit 70 billion dollars a year.