Iranian crude oil has myriad global customers: Oil Minister

Iran’s oil minister says that despite Western sanctions on the oil sector of the Islamic Republic, Iranian crude continues to have many customers worldwide.

“Iran has 17-20 percent of the world’s gas reserves and 12-15 percent of its oil reserves…and ranks first in the world in terms of oil and gas resources,” Rostam Qasemi told a meeting of Mazandaran Province’s Planning and Development Council on Thursday.

The minister added that the US and European oil and gas reserves pale by comparison to Iran’s.

“We have 600 billion barrels of in-place oil. If they are extracted using the current method, Iran will be rich in oil resources for the next 100 years,” he said.

Qasemi stated that Iran produced about 700 million cubic meters of gas last year, supplying gas to 99 percent of cities and 57 percent of villages in Iran.

Pointing to Iran’s second rank among OPEC oil producers, the minister added that the Islamic Republic is now a major exporter of petroleum products to Iraq and Afghanistan, and soon to Pakistan.

Qasemi noted that Iran is exporting 55 million cubic meters of petrochemical products to 70 countries and that many parts of Iran have not been explored for oil and gas reserves yet.

Referring to the ongoing gas exploration and production in the South Pars region, he added that the total amount of gas refined in the South Pars Energy Zone is expected to hit 800 million cubic meters by 2015.

Qasemi stated that the Iranian oil industry is not dependent on foreign technology and technical know-how and that the Iranian specialists are conducting the complicated studies on hydrocarbon reservoirs.

Since the beginning of 2012, the US and the European Union have imposed new sanctions on Iran aimed at penalizing other countries for importing Iranian crude.

Both Washington and the EU claim that Iran’s nuclear energy program includes a military component. Tehran refutes the claims, arguing that despite meticulous inspections, the International Atomic Energy Agency has not found any evidence of a non-civilian diversion in Iran’s nuclear energy program.