Tehran, Mar 13 (IANS): Iranian Oil Minister Javad Owji has said the country's crude exports have reached the highest level since the reimposition of US sanctions in 2018, state media reported.

Owji on Sunday added that Iran's crude exports have increased by 83 million barrel from the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year, which started on March 21, 2022, to February 19, 2023, compared to the same period in 2021-2022, reported the official news agency IRNA.

It also showed a 190-million-barrel increase from the same time span in 2020-2021, he said, without revealing the exact number of Iran's total crude exports, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Iranian oil Minister claimed that the country's gas exports have witnessed a year-on-year rise of 15 per cent in the current Iranian calendar year, noting that Iran has raked in $6.5 billion from its liquefied petroleum gas exports since March 2022.

In May 2018, the US intensified its sanctions on Iran, mainly targeting the country's oil exports and banking sector, following its unilateral withdrawal from a 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The talks on the JCPOA's revival began in April 2021 in Vienna. No breakthrough had been achieved after the latest round of talks in early August 2022.