Iran oil exports rise to 1.2mn barrels per day

Iran's crude oil exports have hit 1.2 million barrels per day, almost doubling from eight months ago when the country elected a new president, a top government official said Friday. Mansour Moazami, who holds the planning brief among the Islamic republic's five deputy oil ministers, said the numbers were 20 percent above forecasts and they would rise further. "When the government took office, exports were around 700,000 barrels per day," Moazimi was cited as saying by Mehr, a semi-official government news agency. He said the updated figure of 1.2 million was supplemented by 200,000 barrels per day of derivative gas products from crude, according to AFP.