Oil export plummeted by one and a half million barrels per day (bpd) following the tightening of international sanctions on Iran in the past three years, resulting in a total loss of $100 billion in oil revenues, secretary of the Expediency Council said Sunday, Shana news agency reported.
"Sanctions have impacted on our oil industry in two ways; they have reduced the volume of oil exports, and have also resulted in a drastic cut in the price of Iran's oil, Mohsen Rezai noted, speaking at a ceremony held Sunday to hand over the Masjed Soleiman Refinery development project to Chinese contractors.
Sanctions imposed in 2012 reduced Iran's oil production from 2.5 million bpd to less than a million bpd, he said. The recent "price sanctions", according to Rezai, led by "Saudi Arabia among others," caused the global prices as well as Iranian oil prices to decline more than 50 percent.
"If price sanctions continue for another three years, Iran will lose a further $100 billion due to the projected continuation of oil plunge," he added.
While Iran was grappling with western-imposed sanctions the Chinese companies were of great assistance providing technology and funds, Rezai stated. "And now they are assigned with producing petrochemicals from associated petroleum gas in the oil-rich Masjed Soleiman region under fair contracts."
In addition to the Masjed Soleiman petrochemical complex, there are four other projects anticipated to be funded through Chinese LOC, namely Gachsaran and Lordegan petrochemical complexes, Sabalan methanol unit, Bushehr and Hengam projects. The projects are estimated to have a total cost of $2 billion.
A total of 67 petrochemical projects with a production capacity of 60 million tons are to be completed in the next few years. China will finance around 30 percent of those projects should the two countries reach agreement.
Nearly $80 billion investments are needed for the development of the key petrochemical industry sector, a part of which will come from Chinese finance, the National Development Fund of Iran (NDFI) and foreign exchange reserves.
The US and its allies imposed an array of sanctions on Iran to curb the country's nuclear program, which Iran insists is entirely peaceful.
Iran and world powers (five permanent members of the UN Security Council, namely United States, Russia, China, United Kingdom, and France, plus Germany) failed to meet a Nov. 24 deadline for resolving the 12-year-old dispute and gave themselves until the end of June for further negotiations in a bid to reach a comprehensive nuclear agreement.
