Figures provided to Radio Farda by Kepler oil tanker tracking and intelligence firm on Monday indicate that Iran's crude oil exports in February dropped to 248,000 barrels per day.

This is even lower than January when Iran exported 254,000 barrels of crude oil per day.

These figures show a reduction of the country's crude oil exports to one-tenth when compared with the 2.5 million barrels Iran exported before the United States re-introduced sanctions on the country in 2018.

Currently, most of Iran's oil is sent to China and some is delivered to Syria.

According to Kepler, in February Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the UAE increased their crude oil exports considerably. The total exports of OPEC countries now stands at 22,359,000 barrel per day, indicating 464,000 barrels per day increase in comparison with January. Iran has now plunged to the bottom of OPEC oil exporters list.

The February increase comes amid OPEC considerations for further production cuts due to the effect of the coronavirus on the markets.

It is not clear whether these countries are paying for Iran's oil or not and if they do, how.

Iran's revenues from oil exports amounted to more than $60 billion in 2018. The huge decline in oil exports which Iranian officials including Vice-President Es'haq Jahangiri have admitted to, will put the government of President Hassan Rouhani in a very difficult position.

The government has based its budget for the next Iranian fiscal year starting on March 21 on exporting one million barrels of crude oil per day to meet its obligations.

In December Vice-President Jahangiri said even Iran's friends were wary of buying Iran's oil and a spokesperson for the Islamic Republic Plan and Budget Organization (PBO) said the budgetary assumption that Tehran will be able to export one million barrels of crude oil per day was intended to "inspire hope".