Tehran, Jun 10 (IANS): The state-run, The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has made preparations to bring its crude production back to the levels it had before the US unilaterally re-imposed sanctions on the country, a top official said.

"We have estimated the time required for a full recovery to be three months, on the basis of the plans and arrangements made, and our anticipation is we would revive most of the capacity as planned within one month," the NIOC's Deputy Director for Production Affairs Farrokh Alikhani said on Wednesday.

To that effect, precise plans have been designed on a weekly, monthly and quarterly basis, Xinhua news agency quoted Alikhani as saying.

Younger and "greener" oil fields would return to their full production capacity quickly, while others may require acidising, pipelines may need technical services, and some offshore fields may require new rigs, he added.

The official admitted that recovering the wells and restoring production would come at a financial cost.

In any case, he further said, the NIOC's plans are not limited to restoring the pre-sanctions level production of 3.38 million barrels per day but aim to increase Iran's output.

"The NIOC has planned to return to the pre-sanctions production in the first step if the sanctions are lifted, and in the next step to increase production capacity to more than 4 million barrels per day," Alikhani noted.