NIOC world’s third biggest oil company

A recent report states that the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) is the world’s third largest oil company despite US-engineered sanctions against the Islamic Republic’s energy sector.

According to the report published by American business magazine Forbes on Sunday, the NIOC has grown its overall volumes from 4.9 million to 6.1 million barrels per day irrespective of nearly a decade of sanctions that have targeted Iran’s oil industry.

Sanctions on Iran’s energy sector were imposed based on the unfounded accusation that Iran is pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program.

Iran rejects the allegations, arguing that as a committed signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

In addition, the IAEA has conducted numerous inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities but has never found any evidence showing that Iran’s civilian nuclear program has been diverted to nuclear weapons production.

The Forbes report further noted that the top-ranked oil company in the world is Saudi Aramco ahead of Russia’s state-controlled firm Gazprom.

Third-place NIOC is followed by American multinational oil and gas corporation Exxon Mobil Corp.

Top Russian oil firm Rosneft has landed in the 5th spot, while multinational oil and gas company Royal Dutch Shell, commonly known as Shell, remains in the sixth position. Chinese oil and gas company PetroChina has taken the 7th slot.

Rounding up the top 10 is the Mexican state-owned petroleum company Pemex, the American multinational energy corporation Chevron, and Kuwait Petroleum Corporation.