The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC; Persian: شرکت ملّی نفت ایران‎ Sherkat-e Melli-ye Naft-e Īrān), a government-owned corporation under the direction of the Ministry of Petroleum of Iran, is a national oil and natural gas producer and distributor headquartered in Tehran. It was established in 1948. 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). the NIOC exports its surplus production according to commercial considerations in the framework of the quotas determined by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and at the prices prevalent in the international markets. in early 2015 NIOC's Recoverable liquid hydrocarbon reserves 156.53 billion barrels (24.886 km3) (10% of world's total) and Recoverable gas reserves 33.79×1012 m3 (15% of world's total). Current NIOC production capacities include over 4 million barrels (640×10^3 m3) of crude oil and in excess of 750 million cubic meters of natural gas per day. Iran's overall export crude oil was valued at US$85 billion in 2010.