Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, Iran's oil minister says he plans to hire more staff in the veteran oil section to increase production, Shana news agency reported.

Zanganeh said, "Veteran petroleum industry manpower are experienced and wise enough and I intend to create enough space for them to work so that this industry will become a center of prudence and collective wisdom."

Referring to the past years, Zanganeh noted that petroleum ministry has been subject to myriads traumas which need to be repaired with the help of all sympathizers of petroleum industry quickly.

"The previous administration imagined that petroleum industry has financial resources and it did not trust its human resources while it was seriously mistaken because petroleum ministry forces focused on wisdom in the exercise of their job and they did not make emotional decisions," Zanganeh said.

He added that the former administration made some deleterious changes in the petroleum industry.

Zanganeh said concerted efforts must be undertaken to return a state of homeostasis.

According to Zanganeh, the former veteran oil industry staff is now working in Iran's neighboring countries.

"The problems we face today in production, exports and purchase of commodities in the petroleum industry have never been like today," Zanganeh said.

He said Iran can take the advantage of the power of oil in its international negotiations to facilitate foreign relations and improve its status.

Due to numerous sanctions imposed on Iran by the western countries over its nuclear program, the country's economy, and mainly its petrochemical sector has greatly suffered damages that would take time to be removed.

Recently ILNA news agency reported that the employees of Fajr, a petrochemical company in Iran, halted work in protest which occurred in Bandar-e Imam Khomeini (a port city on the Persian Gulf in Khuzestan Province) located in southwest of Iran.

About 180 employees of the company staged a protest because of not receiving salaries for doing complex work.

On the basis of Treasury Department list, petrochemical companies that are owned or controlled by the Iranian governmentare Bandar Imam Petrochemical Co, Bou Ali Sina Petrochemical Co and Mobin Petrochemical Co.

Officials in Washington have not only blacklisted eight companies in Iran's petrochemical industry since May, but sent a warning to the country's global customers in an attempt to cut off funds to the country's nuclear program.

This was the first time Washington sanctioned the petrochemical industry, which was the largest source of foreign earnings for Iran's nuclear program after oil sales, according to administration officials.

The U.S. and some of its allies suspects that Tehran's nuclear program aims at developing nuclear weapons capability, but Iran insists it is purely for peaceful purposes. Tehran has rejected the allegations, arguing that since the country is a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, it is entitled to developing nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.