Iran Needs No Permission to Return to Oil Market: Minister

Bijan Namdar Zangeneh touched upon sanctions imposed on the country’s oil industry, and said, “If sanctions are lifted and resources are provided for the revival of oil wells whose production has dropped, it will be quite possible to export 2.3 million barrels of crude a day.”

“There is [good] market for Iran’s oil, and prices will not fall,” he noted.

Iran’s Oil Sale to Hit 2.9 Million bpd If Sanctions Lifted: President

The Iranian oil minister was blacklisted by the US Treasury Department last month. In reaction, Namdar Zangeneh said the move was a testimony to Washington’s failure to drive Iranian oil exports down to zero.

“The sanctions on me and my colleagues are a passive reaction to the failure of Washington’s policy of bringing [Iran’s] oil exports to zero,” said the minister back in October.

“The era of unilateralism in the world has ended. Iran’s oil industry will not give up,” he added.

The oil minister also emphasized last month that he had no assets held abroad to be subject to the US sanctions, saying he would sacrifice his life, assets and dignity for Iran.

The US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the Iranian Ministry of Oil, the National Iranian Oil Company and the National Iranian Tanker Company for alleged financial support for the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).

Iranian oil exports rose sharply in September in defiance of the US sanctions, according to three assessments based on tanker tracking.