Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Sunday that Oil Minister Javad Owji has said Iran’s oil exports last year were the highest seen since 2018.

Owji noted the nation exported 83 million more barrels since the beginning of the Iranian year starting March 21, 2022, than in the previous Iranian year. The total amount of oil exported was not specified, however the official did highlight that the oil exports had reached their highest levels since US sanctions were imposed on the nation again five years ago. He also noted gas exports were also increased 15% over the previous Iranian year.

Tehran had seen its oil exports curtailed since 2018, when former President Donald Trump killed a 2015 nuclear deal with the US and re-imposed sanctions targeting Iranian oil, as well as the nation’s banking and transportation sectors, looking to reduce the nation’s overall revenues.

The country’s oil exports subsequently fell to as little as 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) at times, falling from over 2.5 million bpd in 2018.

The original Iranian nuclear deal was designed to get Iran to curtail their nuclear ambitions in return for lifting sanctions on its sale of oil. Attempts to revive the deal have been hung up lately, due to Washington’s displeasure with Tehran over its human rights abuses, as well as its sale of military hardware to Russian for use in the conflict in Ukraine.

Earlier in the month, the United States imposed new sanctions on 11 shipping companies and 20 shipping vessels affiliated with those companies, over their facilitation of Iranian exports of oil and petrochemical products, in violation of the sanctions presently being applied to the nation.