Sacked Iran Minister Warns of Energy 'Catastrophe'
AFP: TEHRAN -- Iran's sacked oil minister has issued a parting warning to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, predicting a looming "catastrophe" in the Iranian energy sector because of high consumption, media reported Sunday. "If we do not find a solution to the energy problem in the next 15 years, the country will face a catastrophe," Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh was quoted as saying at his farewell ceremony late on Saturday by the ISNA student news agency. "I am ready to prove that if the fuel situation continues along current trends we will face an energy crisis in the future," he said. "The current pattern of consumption is a disaster for the country." The comments by Vaziri Hamaneh, who also revealed for the first time that he was sacked in a cabinet reshuffle last week, are a stark warning about the energy problems of a country rich in natural resources.
Iran is OPEC's number two crude oil producer and is also pinning major hopes on its gas reserves, estimated to be the second largest proven reserves in the world after Russia. But frenzied consumption of petrol forces it to import millions of litres per day of refined oil to make up for a domestic shortfall. Wasteful heating methods also create gas shortages in winter. The government introduced petrol rationing in June in a bid to ease the immense strain on the budget of importing petrol for Iran's 70 million people, but it is still forced to import huge quantities of petrol daily.
Previously:
Iran's oil Problem
Iran's oil outlook
Gold Mine of Data on Energy Use by Urban Density
Forbes
ABF, for the promotion of human rights and democracy in Iran
1 comment:
With not being able to pay public servants, rationing of gasoline, and protests in the streets... Iran's regime is failing and hard. It is sending money out as fast as it can to its distributed terrorist operations and trying to destabilize Iraq and Afghanistan. As if that actually helps them any.
The elections in Turkey are interesting for what has and has not been done, and Iranian backing there seems to be running into a hard wall of the voters outlook. It is very hard to get a revolutionary regime voted in, it can be done but it actually takes some assent for the program to do so. And the veto power of the Turkish military is something that is, apparently, not easily tested especially when Iran, itself, seems to be going under. A waiting game there...
And Syria? Always the 'middleman's cut'. No matter what happens in Iran, Syria comes out just as it is. They will have profited at the expense of Iran, be left with the major control strings for Hezbollah in Lebanon and lesser ones for the global operation that is now self-funding. I like that even less than Iran, at this point... much less as they will have profited off of the suffering of Iranians under this regime.
I know the Iranian people will get through this time and the troubles directly ahead. I wish it did not have to go through such troubles, but that is the nature of this beast... the only bright spot are neighbors now wishing for that to be short and ready to help on the other side. I hope for short, fast and relatively bloodless when that change comes. May it come soon.
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