National Iranian Oil Company

The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC; Persian: شرکت ملّی نفت ایران, romanized: Sherkat-e Melli-ye Naft-e Īrān) is a government-owned national oil and natural gas producer and distributor under the direction of the Ministry of Petroleum of Iran. NIOC was established in 1948 and restructured under The Consortium Agreement of 1954. NIOC ranks as the world's second largest oil company, after Saudi Arabia's state-owned Aramco.

The NIOC is exclusively responsible for the exploration, drilling, production, distribution and export of crude oil, as well as exploration, extraction and sales of natural gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG). NIOC exports its surplus production according to commercial considerations determined by the OPEC and at the prices prevalent in the international markets. In early 2015 NIOC's recoverable liquid hydrocarbon reserves was 156.53 billion barrels (24.886 km³) (10% of world's total) and recoverable gas reserves were 33.79×10¹² m³ (15% of world's total). As at 2012, the NIOC production capacity included over 4 million barrels (640×10^³ m³) of crude oil and in excess of 750 million cubic meters of natural gas per day.