Iran’s new Oil Minister Javad Owji has, according to local reports, said his country is able to find customers for its crude despite the sanctions imposed by the US.
Owji was addressing the first OPEC Plus meeting in Vienna since being named to the new post when he made the remarks, said the reports.
The US imposed its harshest sanctions on Iran three years ago with the express aim of bringing the country’s oil exports down after Washington, under President Donald Trump, unilaterally abandoned an international nuclear deal that Tehran had with it and five other global powers.
Owji said: “After the tyrannical sanctions, oil sales dropped dramatically but this capacity exists in the Ministry of Petroleum and all departments to sell oil.”
He promised: “Good things will happen in terms of oil sales in the coming months”.
One of the ways was to swap oil for goods or investment, Owji said, adding that the potential can also be used in other sectors and industries.
Iran has been exempted from cuts to global supply agreed between OPEC and non-OPEC members in recent years in order to shore up prices.
Owji, meanwhile, has been making efforts to ensure that his country is able to sell oil despite the US sanctions.
For one, Owji himself is believed to have recently held discussions with officials from the China National Petroleum Corporation or CNPC in this regard.