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Thursday, April 18, 2024 4:39 GMT
Iranian Oil Minister Javad Owji said Tehran has offered its assistance to Europe in the form of oil and gas deliveries for winter as energy crisis has been surging in the continent in recent months due to the Ukraine war.Owji stated that Iran has a good capacity to produce oil and gas and their commodities and is thus capable of partly relieving the energy shortage in the world. "Energy prices are out of control in the world and big petrochemical companies in a country like Germany are on the cusp of shutdown for this reason," the minister added.The minister also referred to the jump in the price of gas in Europe, saying gas has reached the unprecedented price of US$3 per cubic meter and it is projected that it will further rise by another 60%. Iranian oil minister noted that under such circumstances, Iran is ready to partly meet the needs of European countries.Owji however said the Europeans themselves wronged their people, adding, "Energy importers face a difficult winter this year."The minister then spoke about the surge in Iran’s energy exports. He stated Iran’s gas condensate sales have reached a daily record of 230,000 to 240,000 barrels in the Persian year of 1401 (March 2022-2023) while it was 7,000 barrels per day in the early days of the administration of President Ebrahim Raisi (August 2021). Iran had 87 million barrels of crude oil stored at sea, out of which, 47 million barrels were exported or converted to higher value-added products.He said the oil ministry started marketing activity to boost sale of oil and gas condensate from day one of the Raisi administration. Owji added that Iran managed to achieve this goal by diversifying oil and gas sale contracts and through high precision marketing. The oil minister noted that Iran managed to find good customers in Latin America, Asia and even Europe for the country’s oil and gas condensate.Europe is in the grip of an energy crisis, and the situation will only get worse as the West attempts to ban Russian energy imports, according to analysts. Russia, the main gas supplier to Europe, has threatened to cut energy supplies to the continent, after West imposed crippling sanctions against Moscow over its war against Ukraine.The European Union has recently revealed a scheme to lower its gas use by 15% until next spring. The EU has already revealed plans to cut the bloc’s reliance on Russian gas by 66% this year by sourcing from other suppliers, investing in renewable energy, and rationing measures such as those mentioned above. However, talk has now shifted to preparing for an immediate cutoff by Russia after Moscow showed its willingness to end supplies to countries that failed to pay for their gas in rubles – a demand Russia only made after the EU froze its foreign currency reserves and expelled it from the SWIFT global transaction system.President Vladimir Putin commented on the European energy crisis in remarks to reporters at the conclusion of his working visit to Iran in July, indicating that the EU and its allies in Kiev are wholly responsible for current situation regarding gas deliveries from Russia. The Russian leader has previously accused European leaders of committing economic “suicide” via “insane and thoughtless” sanctions on Russia over its military operations in Ukraine. - Fars, Shana