ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The Iranian parliament and its energy committee have delegated some special authorities to Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh to circumvent US imposed sanctions and the country is doing “very well” in selling its oil, a member of the legislature’s Energy Committee revealed on Wednesday.
“The sale of the country’s oil is happening within a legal framework… [because] the Islamic Consultative Assembly and the Energy Committee have given powers to the Minister of Oil to sell oil,” Ali Bakhtyar a committee member told semi-official agency ILNA. “The minister is exporting based on this [authority] and I must say our sale is in very good condition.”
In May, Washington refused to renew the oil waivers that were given to eight main customers of Iranian oil last November when the US re-imposed crippling sanctions on the country following its repudiation of the 2015 nuclear deal in 2018.
There are reports that Iran’s oil exports have dropped to as little as 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) last month compared to at least 2.5 million bpd in April 2018 — a month before the US withdrew from the nuclear deal.
It is not clear what the target level of oil exports is for Iran or what entity in the Islamic Republic has the authority to set it. Additionally, the tracking methods currently utilized to monitor the exports are not well documented.
Two camps primarily exist in Iran. One is comprised of Iranian hardliners including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) whose fingers reach into nearly all sectors in and outside of the country. The other is pro-government and loyal to President Hassan Rouhani.
Bakhtyar was responding to calls within some Iranian political circles which are pushing the oil ministry to permit some underhanded tactics including employing individuals with good connections abroad to sell more oil.
“In order to sell oil without corruption occurring, meticulous oversight and adequate measures are needed,” Bakhtyar said.
In the previous round of sanctions before 2015, the oil ministry employed some Iranians abroad like Babak Zanjani who pocketed huge sums of money in order to repatriate the funds from the sale of oil that the government was unable to repatriate through legal channels.
Zanjani is currently on trial in Iran charged with embezzling 3 billion euros of the oil money that he allegedly did not return to the coffers of the Islamic Republic.
“The truth is that since the return of the oil sanctions by America, some [political] currents in the country intend to be active in the sale of oil,” read an article published by the oil ministry’s official news website, Shana, on Monday. “However the structure of the industry and the management of Zangeneh does not allow this to happen.”
The article detailed that one of the main challenges within the oil industry is the “financial and economic corruption remaining from the previous round of sanctions.”
“The export of oil is done in a very good way and there is no need to resort to illegal means to sell our oil,” Bakhtyar said. “So individuals like Zanjani sell it and do not return the money.”
The United States administration under President Donald Trump is determined to decrease Iranian oil exports to zero. Iran has porous borders and long-standing ties and networks with its neighbors and other Asian countries.
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