Iran: Oil Sanctions Upset World Energy Balance

“The politically-motivated oil sanctions have had damaging effects on oil and gas production commensurate with the countries’ reserves, and have given rise to imbalance and the peril of instability in the global arena of oil and gas,”Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said in an address at the opening of the 10th International Energy Conference, held in Tehran on Tuesday.

He said the oil sanctions have also upset the balance of world’s energy market, resulting in the further dependence of consumers on one or two major producers.

Such imbalance has also forced the energy consumers to employ “unclean fuels”, Zanganeh added.

Pointing to the adverse impacts of the oil sanctions imposed on Iran, the minister noted that such “unfair sanctions” have delayed the completion of South Pars gas filed in the Persian Gulf.

Due to the shortage of natural gas in 2013, the country’s power plants inevitably used polluting liquid fuels, mostly fuel oil with high sulfur, instead of gas, Zanganeh explained.

Elsewhere in his comments, the minister expressed the country’s determination to acquire the capacity of oil and gas production proportional to its energy reserves.

He said Iran is the world’s largest holder of oil and gas reserves combined.

With 33.7 trillion cubic meters of proven natural gas reserves at its disposal, Iran holds 15 percent of the world’s gas reserves, the minister said.

“By possessing around 157.3 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, we hold 11 percent of the world’s oil reserves,” Zanganeh added, noting that Iran at present owns 400 billion of barrels of oil equivalent (BBboe).

“Therefore” he said “Iran is determined to gain the production capacity proportional to its oil and gas reserves.”

Back in May, Zanganeh announced that the country’s oil output and production capacity had both risen compared to 9 months earlier, when he took the office.