Azernews.Az

Iran's daily oil output rose by 9,700 barrels in April compared to March, reaching 2.695 million barrels, according to OPEC's report based on secondary sources dated May 10.

The section for Iran's crude oil production level was left blank, signifying that Iran's Oil Ministry has not provided OPEC with its oil output statistics for April.

Iran's oil production in 2011 totaled 3.628 mbpd, compared to 2.973 mbpd in 2012.

Iran's oil output plunged by about one million barrels per day, mostly due to old oil fields and western sanctions over Iran's oil industry and exports.

According to the report, OPEC's total oil production has risen by 277,100 barrels per day in April compared to the previous month, reaching an average of 30.459 million barrels.

Iran stands fifth as OPEC's major oil producer after Saudi Arabia with 9.27 mbpd, Iraq with 3.139, Kuwait with 2.784 and UAE with 2.71 mbpd oil output, according to OPEC's secondary sources.

The OPEC Reference Basket dropped for the second-consecutive month in April, declining by $5.39, or more than 5 percent to stand at $101.05/b.

OPEC estimated that the global oil demand growth in 2013 remains unchanged at 0.8 mb/d, broadly in line with the estimate for 2012.