Tejaratgardan – “The sanctions against Iran are illegal. I cannot describe how we pass this situation to export our oil. These are secret and we cannot disclose how we fight the US which tries to wage an economic war against us. It’s very bad. We believe that oil and gas are not weapons. They are raw materials for people, nations and consumers,” said Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh, addressing a panel of the Russian Energy Week (REW 2019) on Wednesday.   

“I can’t deny that the sanctions haven’t caused any problem for us in the oil sector. But, we do our best to export our oil,” he added, assuring the world energy leaders that Iran can sell its crude despite the US sanctions.  

Zanganeh stressed that these sanctions are the “last tools” the US has used to pressure Iran. 

“The US believes that they can do more. They don’t have more tools to use against Iran. All these sanctions are against the Iranian nation,” he mentioned, answering a question from the panel moderator about the US sanctions on Iran.  

The Iranian oil minister stressed that his country is faring better in the gas sector. “In the gas sector, we have a good situation. By the end of the current Iranian year we will surpass the gas capacity of 7 million cubic metres around 3 billion cubic feet a day and by the end of 2021 only from the South Pars gas field which is the largest gas field in the world, the total volume will reach 27 billion cubic feet a day,” he mentioned, referring to the South Pars gas filed that Iran shares with Qatar in the Persian Gulf. 

Zanganeh added that Iran’s current gas exports go to the neighboring countries such as Iraq, Turkey, Pakistan, Armenia and Oman.