Iran Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi says USD250 billion worth of projects are underway in the Islamic Republic’s oil industry.


“The current operational situation of the oil industry should be called the 'spring of development',” Qasemi said at the 4th Oil Industry’s Research and Technology Festival on Sunday.

The minister stated that Iran is moving forward despite international pressures and foreign sanctions.

“Today more than 105,000 people are working in South Pars [Special Energy Zone], which can be considered a major record and shows the ineffectiveness of [unilateral Western] sanctions [against Iran],” he said.

The Iranian oil minister noted that the country is planning to produce 750 million cubic meters of gas and 1.5 million barrels of condensate per day from the South Pars gas field by the end of the 5th Five-year Economic Development Plan (2010-2015).

At the beginning of 2012, the United States and the European Union (EU) imposed new sanctions on Iran’s oil and financial sectors. On October 15, 2012, the EU foreign ministers agreed on another round of sanctions against Iran.

The illegal US-engineered sanctions have been imposed based on the unfounded accusation that Iran is pursuing non-civilian objectives in its nuclear energy program.

Iran rejects the allegation, arguing that as a committed signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

PG/HGH/SS
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