Iran’s Minister of Oil has issued “new orders” for dealing with international sanctions against Iran’s oil industry, his deputy minister has announced.
The Mehr News Agency reports that Mohammadreza Moghaddam announced that the new orders focus on the production of domestic goods.
He also announced the establishment of a special commission aimed at bringing the oil and gas industry to “complete independence.”
Moghaddam added that the committee’s aim is to prepare itself for “new rounds of sanctions against Iran’s oil industry.”
The EU and the U.S. have imposed severe sanctions on Iran’s oil industry, which reportedly has cut deeply into Iran’s oil exports. The U.S. congress is trying to approve a new package of sanctions against Iran by the end of next week.
Iranian officials have gradually begun to acknowledge the sanctions’ effects on the country, with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad implicitly confirming that the international measures have narrowed the field for the government, even as Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei discusses the realities of a “resistance economy.”
Experts estimate that Iran’s oil exports have shrunk by $100 million per day, a huge blow to an economy that’s grown even more dependent on oil during the Ahmadinejad administration.
Mehr reports that Oil Minister Rostam Ghassemi has issued a comprehensive document to domestically produce “52 needed catalysts, additives and chemicals.”
Iran’s Deputy Oil Minister indicated that Iran could soon become a major exporter of such goods.
