Iranian Oil Industry Under Siege as International Sanctions Grow
From Oil and Gas Journal
By Mansour Kashfi
International sanctions have ravaged the Iranian oil industry, the production of which once exceeded 6 million b/d, more than twice the current level. Rostam Ghasemi, the Islamic regime’s oil minister and a veteran not of the industry but of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, recently said the National Iranian Oil Co. plans to raise oil production to 5.2 million b/d within the next 3 years. Such an increase would require spending of at least $100 billion/year—a level impossible to attain without foreign investment that won’t materialize as long as Iran remains under international suspicion for developing nuclear weapons.
With the Iranian oil industry deprived of modern technology and outside investment, the country’s mature oil fields are in advanced stages of decline. The rejuvenation they need will remain unlikely to occur while sanctions are in place, a condition likely to persist as long as the Islamic regime insists its nuclear program is peaceful without allowing outsiders to verify the claim.
