Indonesia is looking to increase imports of LPG, petrochemical products and crude oil from Iran in the near future. Earlier this year, Indonesia inked a deal to buy LPG from Iran.

Iran's failure to get full access to the global financial system a year after it signed the nuclear deal with world powers has intensified domestic political infighting. It has also turned up the heat on President Hassan Rouhani, a pragmatist facing re-election next year, who has gambled on attracting foreign investment to help raise voters' living standards.

Iran exports about 2 million barrels of its daily output of 3.8 million, said Mohsen Ghamsari, NIOC’s director of international affairs. The country has regained about 80 percent of the market share it held before the U.S. and European Union tightened sanctions on its oil industry in 2012, he said. Sanctions were eased in January, and Iran plans to double crude exports.

Iran is regaining market share at a faster pace than analysts had projected since sanctions were lifted in January, helped by securing more tankers through a temporary shipping insurance fix.

Iran is ramping up its energy industry after international sanctions restricting its access to financing and global oil markets were lifted in January. Since then, the country has boosted oil output to near pre-sanctions levels and raised natural gas production at the South Pars gas field on the Gulf coast.

“We need contracts, tenders and technology,” he said, describing Iran as a “garden” in need of nourishment. “Money for the Iranian economy is like water.”