Minister of Petroleum Bijan Namdar Zangeneh says foreign energy companies are waiting to pounce on Iran’s oil and gas projects once sanctions are lifted.
India’s Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) has replaced Iran with Iraq in its list of oil suppliers and has purchased its first cargo of Basra Light from Baghdad.
Oil prices will gain 30 percent on average in 2012 compared with a year earlier on possible supply disruption from Iran, the International Monetary Fund warned.
U.S. President Barack Obama cleared the way for sanctions aimed at banks in countries that import Iranian oil, the latest U.S. step to ratchet up pressure on the government in Tehran over its nuclear program.