Oil industry analysts estimate that Teheran can increase its output of three million barrels a day by a few hundred thousand.

Its three refineries have an output of 150,000 barrels a day.

It is now pumping less than half its previous output of 2.3 million barrels a day.

Now, the country's output of 8.8 million barrels a day can meet only a little more than 40 percent of Americans' daily consumption.

Texas, with daily output of 1.7 million barrels, is now the No. 2 producer.

With planned output of 100,000 barrels a day, the project could bring in $550 million a year in foreign exchange.

The April figure includes a daily output of 2.6 million barrels by Iraq, which did not sign the group's production sharing program.

The amount of oil to be produced, at least initially, is but a drop in the nation's total output of seven million barrels a day.

The field, whose production had slumped to 10,000 barrels a day in the 1960s, now has a daily output of 85,000 barrels.

The oil reserves are estimated at 3 billion barrels with potential output of 420,000 barrels a day.