TEHRAN: Iran's oil exports have been slashed 40 percent in the past nine months because of tough Western sanctions, Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi was quoted as saying on Monday, in a reversal of his previous denials of any decline at all.
"There has been a 40 percent decrease in oil sales and a 45 percent decrease in repatriating oil money," Qasemi told the Iranian Parliament's budget commission, according to the ISNA news agency citing MPs.
The minister said the final figures for the current Iranian calendar year, which ends in March 2013, would see "a significant decrease" in crude export revenues, but he did not provide any numbers.
The admission by Qasemi was significant, given that he was one of the officials who up to now had been most adamant in claiming that Iran's crucial oil exports were entirely unaffected by draconian US and EU sanctions.
Those assertions have crumbled in recent months, with other Iranian officials acknowledging that the sanctions were hurting the economy.
Economy Minister Shamseddine Hosseini for instance last month admitted that oil revenues had plunged 50 percent because of the Western embargo, which took effect in July 2012.
According to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the International Energy Agency (IEA), Iranian crude exports have fallen from around 2.4 million barrels per day (mbpd) in late 2011 to around 1.0 mbpd by the end of 2012.
The overall amount Iran is pumping out of its oil fields is estimated to have fallen by some 25 percent to 3.0 mbpd — its lowest level since the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.
The sharp decline is undermining Iran's finances. In 2011, Iran relied on the $ 100 billion brought in by oil exports to cover 60 percent of the budget.
This year will see much less money to spend, several Iranian lawmakers and government officials have hinted. "It is expected that oil exports will be 1.5 mbpd" in the next Iranian calendar year starting in March, Qasemi said, according to remarks relayed to ISNA by budget commission spokesman Gholam Reza Kateb.
Iran oil exports down 40% in 9 months
