NIOC has planned that, God willing, if the assumptions and requirements of these plans are provided, in the next 10 years, daily gas production will reach 1.5 billion cubic meters and crude oil production capacity will reach 5 million barrels.

On Sept. 6, Gazprom said that pipelaying work on the project had been completed and commercial operations are expected to begin before the end of 2021. Nord Stream 2 includes two strings of 27.5 Bcm.

Amid Ongoing Talks to Fully Restore 2015 Nuclear Deal, United States Should Lift or Waive Sanctions against Iran, Political Affairs Chief Tells Security Council

US President Joe Biden entered the White House with the pipeline already nearly finished, leaving him with the decision of upsetting Germany or giving a win to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russian oil imports as a share of US total oil imports hit a record high of 8% in January 2021, according to data from the US Energy Information Administration, up from 4% during 2018.

On March 18, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a warning to entities involved in the Nord Stream 2 project that they risk "US sanctions and should immediately abandon work on the pipeline."

"We will continue to register any organization that may be involved in any sanctioned activity, and have made it clear that any company risks being penalized for participating in Nord Stream 2," Giordono-Scholz said.

Iran has insisted that the US drop all the sanctions it unilaterally imposed after withdrawing from the deal in 2018, while US officials have maintained that Iranian nuclear violations of the agreement must be rectified first.

Iran met in Vienna with the remaining signatories of the deal – the EU, UK, France, Russia, China and Germany. While the US was also in Vienna, it did not participate directly in those talks but met separately with the deal signatories in a different part of the city.

Iranian crude production has risen in recent months, hitting 2.14 million b/d in February, a 190,000 b/d increase from a 33-year low of 1.95 million b/d in August.