- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that the economy of the Islamic republic should give up its dependance on oil exports, adding the establishment of an Iranian oil refinery indicates the complete nationalization of the country's oil industry.
The country's crude oil exports should be stopped since the issue of oil has been presently manipulated by big powers as a means to put pressure on its producers, Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.
He made the remarks in an address to a ceremony to mark the launch of Shaid Tondgouyan oil refinery's optimization units on Tuesday.
Arguing that nowadays the price of oil is determined "based on political situation (in the world) instead of economic conditions, " the president said that "If it was not so, the real price of oil should have been very much higher in the market than what it is presently."
He said that Shaid Tondgouyan oil refinery is the first refinery fully completed by Iranian experts and is an "indication of the complete nationalization of Iran's oil industry," said the report.
Ahmadinejad also underlined the world states' growing enthusiasm for investment in Iran's oil sector, according to semi- official Fars news agency.
"Presently, investment in the country's oil industry has amounted to 7.1 billion U.S. dollars and the world is still eager to invest (in Iran)," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying.
He downplayed the effects of the Western sanctions on the country's economy and said that "since the very day that investment in (Iran's) oil industry was sanctioned by the westerners, the trend of investment in the oil industry has actually doubled" in speed and capacity, according to Fars.
In January, the EU foreign ministers approved the new sanctions against Tehran which prevented its member states from buying the Iranian crude. The sanctions went into effect on July 1.
Washington also imposed a new round of sanctions in June, targeting financial institutions of any country that buys Iranian oil. However, it exempted 20 economies from the sanctions for a period of 180 days.
Western countries suspect that Iran is developing nuclear bombs under the cover of its nuclear program, while Iran insists on the program's peaceful purpose.
Source: Crinenglish
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