Jahangiri: No Institution Returned Even One Dollar from Oil Sales to the Government

Iran's First Vice President says that various institutions and individuals who received oil from the government during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency due to sanctions on Iranian oil sales have not returned even one dollar from the proceeds. According to the state news agency IRNA, Eshaq Jahangiri stated on Saturday, April 17, that 'unfortunately, when our oil was sanctioned, its sale was entrusted to some individuals like Babak Zanjani.' He also emphasized that 'I can clearly say that no institution that received oil from the Ministry of Oil to sell has returned even one dollar to the government.' Jahangiri stressed that if Iran's economy during Hassan Rouhani's presidency had been 'as disrupted as in previous years,' the members of the 1+5 group 'would never have come to the negotiating table' with the Islamic Republic. Babak Zanjani, who has been sentenced to death, is accused in the prosecutor's indictment of having paid only '160 million euros' of the 2.7 billion euros he was obligated to pay to the oil company, spending the rest on personal matters. Meanwhile, reports have previously surfaced regarding the sale of oil by various institutions, including the police force. The Fars news agency reported on January 25, 2014, that despite selling a shipment of crude oil worth $185 million and receiving payment, the police force refused to pay its debt to the National Iranian Oil Company. Ismail Ahmadi Moghadam, who was the police chief at the time, confirmed on October 7, 2014, that six million dollars of this money had not yet been deposited into the government treasury. According to Ahmadi Moghadam, $180 million of this amount was directly spent on 'salary shortfalls' for police personnel and was not deposited into the treasury. He also stated on January 30, 2014, that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had suggested that the police sell oil to cover its 11% budget deficit. In another part of his remarks, Jahangiri stated that the Rouhani government had 'only $20 billion' in oil revenue last year. He added, 'Last year was one of the masterpieces of managing the country given the economic conditions, namely the continuation of sanctions until February and the severe drop in oil prices.' Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, the government spokesman, also stated on April 3 that due to the decline in oil prices in global markets and Iran's oil production, the country's revenue had decreased from '119 billion dollars' during the previous government to '19 billion dollars.' Jahangiri also announced that the gap between Iran and Qatar in the extraction from the South Pars gas field has become 'terrifying,' with Qatar extracting $10 billion from 'Iran's rights.' He considered the development of joint fields with other countries as one of the government's 'priorities.' The South Pars field, with 30 trillion cubic meters of gas reserves, is the largest gas field in the world, containing 8% of the world's total gas reserves. The Iranian section of this field is divided into 29 phases. The development of the South Pars field began during Mohammad Khatami's presidency in 1997, during which five phases were inaugurated, and the development of phases 6 to 10, with over 60% progress, was handed over to Ahmadinejad's government. However, from 2005, when Ahmadinejad took office until the end of his presidency, only ten phases of this field were completed, and the gross gas production from these phases reached 285 million cubic meters. With the inauguration of phases 15 and 16 of South Pars on January 10, 2016, gas production from these two phases will reach 56 million cubic meters per day, and 80,000 barrels of gas condensate will also be produced from these two phases. While Iran has fallen behind in the development of the South Pars field in recent years, Qatar's gross gas production from this joint field is nearly double that of Iran. Qatar, as the largest producer of liquefied gas in the world, produces about 155 billion cubic meters of gas from this field annually, which, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, has increased fivefold compared to ten years ago.