Iranian oil sector .. US sanctions harsher, how to get around?

Jazeera Net-Tehran

The Iranians are unanimous that the oil and gas sectors are in dire conditions by US sanctions, but they stress the need to circumvent them into an opportunity to free the national economy from dependence on oil and gas revenues.

Iranian Oil Minister Begin Zanganeh described the oil sector as "dangerous and delicate", accusing the Iranian opposition abroad, Israel and some neighboring countries of inciting the Americans to tighten the screws on Iran, stressing that oil is at the front line of the economic war.

He compared the current circumstances with the first Gulf War, describing US sanctions as a relentless war, and that the current economic pressures are more severe than his country suffered during the eight-year war with Iraq, where they were able to sell oil and receive its dues without any hindrance.

Dark horizon
Iman Nasseri, director of the Middle East division at FGI Oil & Gas Consulting, says the prospects for development in Iran's oil and gas sectors are "bleak and troubling" with sanctions banning them from providing new technology and hindering their exports.

He pointed out that there are many problems that make the sale of crude oil and delivery to the importer "difficult task" because of the transparency of all refineries in various countries of the world, and revealed the return of some Iranian oil shipments to Europe if it turns out that they are from Iran.

He predicted that the difficulties impeding the export of Iranian oil abroad will continue for a period of time, which he described as not long, but warned that the oil industry will become meager in the future if Tehran can not find solutions to the current pressure.

Severe penalties
Nasseri described the US sanctions on the sale of Iranian oil as "the most severe", but revealed that a very professional Iranian team took on the task of selling oil, and did not spare no effort to circumvent the sanctions and get the sector out of its predicament.

For his part, Iranian economic researcher Mohammad Sadeq al-Husseini considered that the US sanctions on Iran are "the most cruel and most complex" in history, stressing that the sanctions of the Donald Trump administration aimed at the arteries of financial exchanges of the Iranian economy.

In an interview with Al Jazeera Net, Husseini pointed out that US sanctions were not able before the nuclear deal to reduce Iranian oil exports to less than one million and 150 thousand barrels per day, pointing out that the Trump administration managed for the first time through its sanctions to reduce our oil exports to less than before the agreement.

The volume of exports
Hosseini stressed that the volume of Iranian exports of crude oil has become a secret of the regime and knows only two or three people in the country, pointing out that the volume of less than one million and 150 thousand barrels and more than the figures announced by the Western media, but that Iran has created modern mechanisms to circumvent the sanctions American.

The data reported by Reuters at the end of May had pointed out that Iran's crude exports fell to about 400 thousand barrels per day, described by the Iranian oil minister at the time as a "pure lie", and declined to disclose the volume of Iran's crude exports, attributed to Giving figures in this regard is not in Iran's interest.

He expected a breakthrough in relations between Iran and the United States even before the US presidential elections in 2020 because the United States burned all its cards and applied the policy of maximum pressure on the one hand and run out of time on the other, pointing out that Washington will provide great privileges to the Iranian side will lead to the revival of its economy, and in the forefront Oil and gas sectors.

He concluded that the US sanctions did not affect the Iranian gas sector because of the small volume of exports abroad, although Tehran has the second largest gas reserves in the world, and explained that Iranian gas exports to Turkey and Iraq are proceeding without any obstacles.

Liberalization of the economy
Tehran University economics professor Mohammad Khosh-Jahra argues that US sanctions - especially on the oil sector - are an opportunity to put an end to the oil economy and to pull the pretext from Iran's enemies to exert pressure by threatening to scare sanctions.

In his interview with Al Jazeera Net, Khosh Jahra pointed out that Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has stressed more than once on the need to liberate the national economy from dependence on oil revenues, and called for reforming the false vision affected by the culture of the oil economy, and presented his vision to adopt a "resistance economy" to face US sanctions On the country.

The former Iranian lawmaker believes that the threat of US sanctions to the national economy cannot be denied in the near term, but he urges his officials to absorb the threat and turn it into an opportunity to get rid of dependence on oil revenues.

He stressed that the Trump team will eventually see that it has contributed to the achievement of the strategic goals of the Islamic Republic, and stressed the need to pay more attention to the gas industry in the country to increase the volume of exports to neighboring countries, as well as increasing electricity production in gas stations.

Amir Hossein Zamani, Iran's deputy oil minister, has revealed a new way to sell oil and circumvent US sanctions by selling it in the "gray market", without going into details.