That is in line with what the article says:

"Iran needs to invest more than it does," said Manouchehr Takin, an Iranian energy analyst at the Center for Global Energy Studies in London. "It needs foreign companies to bring expertise, capital and technology."

But oil companies complain that the rewards are limited. Under Iran's stringent buyback contracts, oil companies basically operate as contractors for the government for a limited time. They are not allowed to book the reserves as their own and gain little in extra profits when energy prices go up.

I also just realized that the the translucent cloud around the forecasted oil production projection represents the range of possible severity in the decline.  Nevertheless, consumption seems certain to increase steadily, and so even if production remains (at the most optimistic extreme) more or less flat, Iran's situation seems bound to become more desperate.

Truth unfolds in time through a communal process.