Iran exports 2bn dollars of oil products

Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi says the implementation of the Subsidy Reform plan has enabled the country to export USD 10 billion of oil products in the past two years. Iran launched a major national plan to reallocate subsidies paid by the government on various energy carriers and other essential goods in December 2010.

Strengthening Iranian industries and production, increasing oil exports, reducing domestic fuel consumption, and reducing the government's expenses were the major goals of the plan.

“By implementing the [subsidy reform] law, we not only prevented gasoline imports, but managed to export more than USD 10 billion in oil products,” Qasemi said on Monday.

The minister added that if the law had not been implemented, the country would have had to import 60 million liters of gasoline.

“Despite the many threats posed by the enemies, we have no concerns about developing the [Iranian] oil industry, and day by day we are moving toward self-sufficiency in the industry by taking advantage of the specialty and capacities of the country’s young scientists,” he said.

Qasemi stated that Iran is not concerned about the economic sanctions imposed on the country by Western states and considers such threats a very good opportunity for the development of the country.

“Many countries in the world are permanent customers of Iranian oil and in view of the new methods [that are available] for selling and supplying oil to global markets, we are not concerned about selling our oil,” he noted.

The United States and European Union have approved tough sanctions against Iran's oil sector since the beginning of 2012 to prevent EU members and other countries from importing Iranian oil and its products.

They accuse Iran of pursuing military purposes under the cover of its nuclear energy program. Tehran refutes their charges saying as a committed member of International Atomic Energy Agency and a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), it is fully entitled to peaceful uses of the nuclear energy.

Press TV