Amid Pompeo visit, Iran says it has energy projects worth $5.5 billion

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani attended a meeting devoted to oil and energy issues on Monday. He met with Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh and discussed the country’s latest ambitions and projects.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Israel on Monday. Iran’s bragging about its oil accomplishments appear tied to the Pompeo visit and an attempt to argue that the Iranian energy industry has not been gutted by continuing US sanctions. The report on Rouhani’s comments was made on Fars News.

Rouhaniand his oil and gas experts discussed investments in projects that total €4.7 billion ($5.5b.). This included several billion for up to nine new natural gas lines and also a billion being plowed into Bushehr Petrochemical projects. A new power plant will also be built.

Iranian infrastructure recently suffered a series of mysterious explosions, with Iran hinting that sabotage damaged its Natanz nuclear facility. Numerous power plants and petrochemical facilities also suffered mysterious fires. Iran says it is launching 17 new projects in this sector and that it has 55 companies active in the south of the country.

Iran is seeking massive new investment by China in this sector as well. Beijing has slammed US attempts to put in place “snapback” sanctions and has also opposed extending an arms embargo on Iran.

Iranian media in recent months has discussed a new deal with China that could see $400b. in trade and investment. The reports said China could invest $280b. over the next decades in Iran’s petrochemical sector. Another $100b. would go toward infrastructure upgrades. That means the current discussion of $5.5b. is only a small drop in the bucket of what Beijing could provide.

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Rouhani said Iran has nothing to be ashamed of in its current state of affairs. Tehran was once seeking to produce 3.8 million barrels a day of oil. Reports said the US sanctions had removed 2.7 million of those barrels daily from the world market. Rouhani indicated Iran should be producing about a million barrels daily but that US sanctions had taken a bite. He said the gas industry has also helped connect 17,000 villages to natural gas.