Iran: New Sanctions Won't Stop its Oil Industry
The Iranian oil industry will continue to develop even if the United States pulls out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, and Tehran would see the accord as operational as long as it can sell oil, the Oil Ministry website quoted senior officials as saying on Monday.
U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to pull out of the Iran deal by not extending sanctions waivers when they expire on May 12 unless European signatories of the accord fix what he calls its "flaws". "They cannot stop Iran. Our oil industry's development will continue even if new sanctions are imposed on Iran," SHANA quoted Gholamreza Manouchehri, deputy head of the National Iranian Oil Company, as saying. Sanctions imposed on Iran in early 2012 by the United States and European Union over its nuclear programme cut Iran's crude exports from a peak of 2.5 million barrels per day (bpd) before the sanctions to a little more than 1 million bpd.