AME Info- Iran’s Arvandan Oil and Gas Co hopes to raise its crude output capacity to 450,000 barrels per day (bpd) by late March, the oil ministry’s news website SHANA said on Saturday.

Soltan Kamali, managing director of Arvandan, a subsidiary of the state’s National Iranian Oil Co, said the firm’s production capacity had reached 400,000 bpd, SHANA reported.

“We hope that this figure will reach 450,000 bpd by the end of the year,” Kamali was quoted as saying. He was referring to the Iranian year, which ends on March 20, 2017.

Iran, a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, won an exemption from the group’s production cuts agreed on Nov. 30 and may raise output slightly.