Iran To Spend $14 Bln on Oil Industry Projects
13:52 03/07/2012 MOSCOW, July 3 (RIA Novosti) - The Iranian National Development Fund (NDF) will allocate $14 billion on the development of the country’s oil industry projects, Iranian media reported on Tuesday quoting Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi as saying.
Qasemi, who signed a memorandum of understanding with NDF’s head Mohammad-Reza Farzin on Tuesday, said that the fund would allocate $5 million next week as part of its $14-billion funding program.
The minister also said that according to the country’s five-year development plan for 2010-2015, $50 billion should be annually invested in upstream and downstream projects, Shana news agency said.
Iran, the second largest OPEC oil producer after Saudi Arabia, transfers 20 percent of its oil revenues to the NDF.
The EU-brokered embargo on Iranian oil exports came into force on July 1, six months after the 27-nation bloc, which stands for 18 percent of Iranian oil exports, introduced an oil embargo on the Islamic Republic.
"Although the EU is trying to strike a blow to Iran's economy, fortunately the situation and conditions are so good that even new customers have been found for Iran's oil," Fars quoted Qasemi as saying.
Qasemi also downplayed the sanctions’ effect, saying that they would “inflict loss on the Europeans.”
Western nations suspect Iran, which is already under four sets of UN Security Council sanctions, of pursuing a secret nuclear weapons program but Tehran insists it needs nuclear power solely for civilian purposes.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
