Iran plans to scale up its oil production by 700,000b/d in the near future, according to the Iranian Deputy Oil Minister, Rokneddin Javadi, the Tasnim News Agency reported. “One of the goals of Iran’s sixth development plan is to produce 4.7mb/d of crude oil,” said the minister, wrote Reuters.

His remarks came after Russian Energy Minister, Alexander Novak, said in a statement following a meeting in Doha between Russia, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar that the four countries are ready to freeze oil production at January levels if other producer countries follow suit. In most recent developments, Russian energy minister said that oil output freeze deal will be concluded by 1st March, informed Reuters in a related report.