NIOC exports its surplus production according to commercial considerations determined by the OPEC and at the prices prevalent in the international markets.

[5] In May 1901, William Knox D'Arcy was granted a concession by Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar to search for oil, which he discovered in May 1908.

In March 1951, Ali Razmara was assassinated; and Mohammed Mossadeq, a nationalist, was elected as the new prime minister by the Majlis of Iran.

The British government, which owned the AIOC, contested the nationalization at the International Court of Justice at The Hague, but its complaint was dismissed.

[13] In August 1953, the coup brought pro-Western general Fazlollah Zahedi to power as the new PM, along with the return to Iran of the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi from his brief exile in Italy.

Under pressure from United States, British Petroleum reluctantly accepted membership in a consortium of companies, founded in October 1954, to bring back Iranian oil to the international market.

[17][18] The founding members of IOP included British Petroleum (40%), Gulf (later Chevron, 8%), Royal Dutch Shell (14%), and Compagnie Française des Pétroles (later Total, 6%).

According to the IOP's Web site: The victory of the Islamic revolution annulled the Consortium Agreement of 1954 and all regulations pertaining to it.

The revolution led to the withdrawal or expulsion of virtually all foreign employees from the oil industry with the new Iranian government assuming full control of its affairs.

[23] The vast majority of Iran's crude oil reserves are located in giant onshore fields in the south-western Khuzestan region near the Iraqi border.

[citation needed] As of 2012, Iran is capable of storing crude oil in the Persian Gulf for a period of 10–12 days.

With appropriate division of tasks and delegation of responsibilities to subsidiaries- affiliates, NIOC has been able to establish acceptable degrees of coordination within its organizational set up.

Iranian manufacturers will supply oil industry with $10 billion worth of domestically made goods and equipment in 2012.

[78] In 2021, Iran announced that 820 domestic firms, including 182 knowledge-based, have manufactured 85% of the parts or equipments needed by the oil and gas sector, worth some $5 billion.