The parliament claims that the government’s assertion about the increase in oil exports is incorrect.
Sanctions, a decrease in global prices, heavy discounts to buyers, and non-cash settlements in the form of weapons and goods have caused the actual revenue from oil sales to reach its lowest level in the past three years.
After the oil minister of Massoud Pezeshkian’s government claimed that Iran’s oil sales situation is very good and that its export levels have increased compared to last year, today, Wednesday, November 4th, the deputy head of the parliament’s budget and planning commission refuted this claim.
Hadi Ghavami stated that according to the 2025 budget, from the capital asset transfer line, which mainly consists of oil revenue, 930 trillion tomans should have been realized, but in the first six months of this year, only 151 trillion tomans have been realized.
He added that in the first six months of the year, 474 trillion of this amount should have been collected, but only 32% of it has been collected, and in this line, there is a shortfall of more than 322 trillion tomans.
Mohsen Paknejad, the oil minister of the Islamic Republic, said on November 7th that it’s a pity he can’t disclose the oil export figures, and if he did, it would be clear that the situation is much better than before.
According to international reports, the Chinese government buys more than 60% of Iran’s oil, but last week, Reuters reported that the discount the Islamic Republic gives to China on each barrel of oil due to US sanctions increased from three dollars in April this year to six dollars in September, and now each barrel of Iranian oil is provided to China with an eight to ten dollar discount.
On the other hand, Hadi Ghavami, pointing to the decrease in the price of Iranian oil and the reduction in sales, emphasized that the price of each barrel of Iranian oil has dropped from 71 dollars last year to 51 dollars today, and this price drop is a result of discounts in oil sales.
Considering the recent price of around 61 dollars for each barrel of Iranian oil, it seems that these statements confirm last week’s Reuters report about a significant ten-dollar discount per barrel for China.
This member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly added that the quantity and volume of oil sales have also dropped from 1.8 million barrels in the most optimistic scenario to 1.6 million barrels, although evidence suggests that the sales volume is less than this 1.6 million barrels.
He then addressed the recent statements by the oil minister, who claimed that the oil sales situation is very good, saying that both the amount of oil sales has decreased and the price per barrel has dropped by about 20 dollars. Perhaps the level of oil exports is good, but the inflow of oil money into the country is not good.
