Iranian Oil Minister Archives - Iran News Daily

Oil Minister Impeachment Cancelled

reporter 1222 — Mon, 16 Dec 2019 14:02:36 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – The Iranian parliament has withdrawn a motion to impeach Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh a month after he was accused of ignoring the will of the lawmakers before announcing a controversial fuel price hike.

“Given negotiations (held between) lawmakers and the current situation of the country, the impeachment of oil minister in no longer on the agenda,” said Jalal Mirzaei, a member of the Iranian parliament’s energy committee, in an interview with IRNA agency.

The lawmaker said Zanganeh had attended two rounds of inquiry in the energy committee to respond to questions of the lawmakers regarding the fuel price hike.

The government’s decision to abruptly increase the price of gasoline on November 15 caused an unprecedented wave of protests across Iran.

Some lawmakers in the parliament blamed the oil ministry for the crisis, saying authorities should have consulted the parliament before increasing the prices.

Zanganeh, a long-serving minister and a face of Iran’s oil industry at the international level, has sought to distance his department from the decision while trying to implement plans that could offset the impacts of the price hikes on the daily lives of the Iranians.

Mirzaei said the parliament had come to the conclusion that the general political situation in the country was not ripe for holding the impeachment against Zanganeh.

The upcoming parliamentary election in February was also a reason for the lawmakers to abandon the impeachment motion against the oil minister, said the lawmaker.

Reports over the past weeks had suggested that the parliament may introduce a similar impeachment motion against Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli over his failure to coordinate government efforts during the fuel price crisis.

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Completion of South Pars Phases High on Agenda: Iran’s Oil Minister

reporter 1222 — Thu, 24 Jan 2019 10:03:56 +0000

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said it is his ministry’s priority to complete the remaining phases of the South Pars gas field in southern Iran.

Speaking to reporters upon his arrival in the southern city of Assaluyeh on Thursday, Zanganeh said during his trip he would visit the development projects of the gas field and hold meetings with local officials of the energy zone.

He also called for efforts to speed up the operational process of the phases 13, 22, 23, and 24 of the South Pars and said the completion of the phases is high on the agenda of the Oil Ministry.

Zanganeh had previously said Iran is on pace to boost gas production to 1 billion cubic meters a day by March, roughly the same time that all South Pars phases are planned to be up and running.

The gas field, whose development has been divided into 28 phases, is located in the Persian Gulf straddling the maritime border between Iran and Qatar.

It covers an area of 9,700 square kilometers, of which 3,700 square kilometers belongs to Iran.

It is estimated that the Iranian section of the field contains 14 trillion cubic meters of gas and 18 billion barrels of condensates in place.

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U.S. bullying won’t resolve supply shortage in oil market: Zanganeh

reporter 1222 — Wed, 17 Oct 2018 05:50:15 +0000

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said U.S. cannot balance a market which is suffering from short supply by words and bullying.

“The oil market is suffering from short supply and this cannot be resolved by words. Trump thinks he can bring the oil prices down by bullying,” Zanganeh said on the sidelines of the 4th Iranian Petroleum and Energy Club Congress (IPEC 2018) in Tehran on Tuesday.

The minister criticized Trump’s recent interferences in the oil market, saying that the rise of oil prices has been a “self-inflicted pain” resulted from U.S. sanctions against Iranian oil industry, and could be easily resolved by lifting the sanctions.

Mentioning Trump’s plans for zero Iranian oil exports, the official said “We should see how market is reacting, everyone is worried and Trump has failed to reassure them. Big oil producing countries are going off the market under U.S. sanctions and that has led to turmoil.”

The United States announced new sanctions after withdrawing from a nuclear deal with Iran in May. The new round of U.S. sanctions against Tehran are set to start in November 4.

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