Special to WorldTribune.com

Iran is eager to put a dent on Saudi Arabia’s all-out effort to dominate the oil market.

Teheran will increase its oil output by 500,000 barrels per day immediately after sanctions are lifted and does not need permission to do so, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said.

The Saudis have continued to flood the market with cheap oil as they seek to push out new producers who lowered production costs.

Iran, meanwhile, has its sights set on regaining the No. 2 spot in OPEC’s production pecking order that it held before international sanctions kicked in and dropped Teheran to fourth place.

Iran sits on the world’s fourth largest reserves of crude oil with 157 billion barrels of recoverable crude.

Currently, Iran produces about 2.8 million barrels per day of which about one million barrels are exported. Iran’s output was nearly 4 million barrels per day in 2011, before the sanctions took hold.

Zanganeh said that Iran doesn’t need permission to return to the oil market after “illegally” being pushed out by the sanctions regime.

The oil minister made his comments after sending a letter to OPEC in which he called on the cartel to reduce production by at least 1.3 million barrels per day, the oil ministry’s SHANA news agency reported on Dec. 2.

  Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, Iran oil minister: We don’t need permission to increase oil output, OPEC, WorldTribune.com