Russia supplied a record amount of crude oil to China in September, surpassing Saudi Arabia for the second time as the top seller to the Asian giant, customs data showed, boosted by demand from independent refiners.

India is ready to invest more than $15.2 billion to build projects in Iran including taking up full-scale development of Chabahar Port if Tehran offers better terms including cheaper gas, Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Wednesday.

Iran has projected average oil prices at $42 to $50 per barrel in a draft budget bill for the year to March 2017, a government spokesman was quoted as saying on Monday, expecting crude to stay in the current trading range.

Iran will ramp up crude oil production and reclaim its lost share of exports shortly after international sanctions on the OPEC member are lifted, Iran's oil minister Bijan Zanganeh said on Tuesday.

On July 14, the P5+1 (the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany) and Iran announced an agreement that could result in relief from United States and European Union nuclear-related sanctions (which include some oil-related sanctions). If the agreement is implemented and sanctions relief occurs, it will put additional Iranian oil supplies on a global market that has already seen oil inventories rise significantly over the past year.

The six nations that make up Central Asia hold at least 11% of the world’s proven natural gas reserves, as well as substantial deposits of oil and coal, according to data compiled by BP. Afghanistan says its mineral wealth is valued at $1 trillion to $3 trillion.

In the medium term, Iran’s gas will not be able to compete with the Russian gas in the European market.

Imports by Iran's four biggest buyers - China, India, Japan and South Korea - totaled 1.17 million barrels per day (bpd) last month, up more than 13 percent from a year earlier, government and tanker-tracking data showed.

Iran produces about 2.7m barrels of oil a day. But a report by Wood Mackenzie, the energy consultancy, to be published on Thursday, says that it could add 600,000 b/d of crude production by the end of 2017, assuming that it strikes a nuclear deal with the US and EU that lifts sanctions.

Iran needs $100 billion to rebuild its gas industry and has met with European energy giants as an end to decades of international sanctions looms, according to the state-run company in charge of discussions.