Iranian Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari Wednesday said Iran's oil output hit a record 4.184 million barrels a day, the highest since the 1979 Islamic revolution, the official IRNA agency reported.
"(Tuesday) we reached a record of oil output since the Islamic revolution with production of 4.184 million barrels a day of oil," Nozari was quoted as saying.
"It is planned to increase oil production to 4.2 million barrels a day by the end of the current Iranian year" on March 19, he said.
Benefiting from high oil prices, the Organization of Petroleum Countries' number two producer is expecting to pocket $60 billion in foreign currency revenues from oil sales in the current Iranian current year, Nozari said earlier.
Iran's OPEC output quota is 3.187 million barrels a day.
Despite long-term plans to increase oil output, pressure falls in oil wells have prevented Iran from increasing production to its target of 5 million barrels a day.
Iran has also been suffering from under-investment in its oil fields with European companies under pressure from the U.S. not to deal with Tehran amid the standoff over its nuclear program.
The imperial regime that was ousted by the Islamic revolution would have had high production rates because of the high pressure in wells in the years following the first discovery of oil in Iran in 1908.