Tehran (Platts)--6Feb2013/737 am EST/1237 GMT

Iran earned $110 billion from oil exports in the 2011-2012 Iranian year, which the National Iranian Oil Company said was a record for the OPEC state, students' news agency ISNA reported Wednesday.

"Iran's oil exports were valued at $110 billion in the last Iranian year that ended March 19, 2012," NIOC managing director Ahmad Ghalehbani was quoted as saying.

"This amount of exports is regarded as a record in the history of National Iranian Oil Company," he said, referring to both volume and income.

Ghalehbani, who is also deputy oil minister, said Iran had managed to improve efficiency, boost investment and maintain oil production.

He put investments in the upstream energy sector during the 2011-2012 year at $22.6 billion, a $5.9 billion increase over the preceding year's $16.7 billion.

Ghalehbani, who is also deputy oil minister, played down the impact of international sanctions targeting the country's energy sector.

"Domestic workers have been able to increase oil and gas production at a good and acceptable level and, despite the sanctions and restrictions, we have made good achievements in the field of exports and the manufacture of equipment by using domestic capacities," he said.

Ghalehbani did not provide comparative figures or volumes for the previous year, when Iranian oil exports were not subject to the restrictions that came into effect in mid-2012.

The EU banned oil imports by member states from Iran starting July 1 shortly after the US tightened financial sanctions designed to squeeze Iranian oil revenues. Iranian oil exports have plunged by 1 million b/d since the sanctions came into effect.

The international sanctions are designed to deprive the Islamic Republic of its main source of revenues that the US and its allies suspect are being diverted to a covert atomic weapons program. Iran has denied the charges and insists its nuclear program is peaceful.

The latest set of US sanctions came into effect on Wednesday, prohibiting buyers of Iranian oil from transferring funds back to Iran, making it harder for Iran to gain access to its oil cash.

--Aresu Eqbali, newsdesk@platts.com

--Edited by Kate Dourian, kate_dourian@platts.com

 Jonathan Fox, jonathan_fox@platts.com

rajan_pradeep@platts.com

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