In May 2018, President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, signed between Iran and the P5+1 in July 2015, and reimposed Washington’s unilateral sanctions on Tehran.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Iran Daily, Ali Bakhtiar, a member of the Iranian Parliament’s Energy Committee, added this will be accomplished in light of the completion of the development projects of a number of the phases of the South Pars (SP) Gas Field in the Persian Gulf by the same date.

Iran jointly owns the field with Qatar, which calls its part of the world’s largest gas reserve, the North Dome, and recently managed to overtake the Arab country in extraction from the joint field.

He described by developing South Pars fields, Iran’s being ahead of Qatar in gas production from the field as a great achievement, while being under strict US sanctions, adding that the country had accomplished this over the past 12 months while none of the world’s major companies were cooperating with it.

“Iran managed to get past Qatar in gas extraction from SP while relying on domestic companies’ capabilities. This comes as the Qataris have been cooperating all the while with all of the world’s leading companies in production from the field.”

He noted that Iran sits on the world’s biggest hydrocarbon (oil and gas together) reserves.

“At present, no country can officially purchase oil from Iran as the US has ended waivers from its unilateral sanctions for customers of Iranian crude. Nevertheless, even under the present difficult circumstances, we have certain techniques to bypass the sanctions. We are currently continuing our oil exports although at a slower pace and in a smaller volume [compared to the pre-sanctions era].”

Bakhtiar said the US has failed to make its dream of reducing Iran’s oil exports to zero come true, noting that in November 2018, when the white House announced that it would bring Iran’s overseas sales of crude to zero, “we put our crude cargo on sale on Iran Energy Exchange (IRENEX) and managed to sell our oil in one of the most transparent markets.”

Elaborating further on Iran’s strategy of selling oil through IRENEX, he added that over the past few years, the ground became prepared for, first, selling petrochemicals and, then, offering oil byproducts.

Offering oil on the domestic stock exchange began following the achievement to sell oil byproducts on IRENEX, the lawmaker said, describing the experience as successful.

Turning to problems involved in offering crude oil on IRENEX, he said the drawbacks can be overcome, making the continuation of the process definitely possible.

“We are required to use the domestic capital market to sell oil, particularly, as Iranians are willing to purchase crude through the stock exchange.”

It is interesting for them to be able to use their capital for buying crude oil on the stock exchange, he said.

Bakhtiar said the Iranian Parliament’s Energy Committee is studying and exploring different techniques and strategies for selling oil and will welcome and support new plans and ideas to this end.