Iran oil sector avoided layoffs during pandemic: Minister
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh says the massive oil industry in the country has managed to survive the economic impacts of the new coronavirus pandemic without laying off a single worker.
Zanganeh said on Tuesday that Iran had been spared extensive job cuts seen in many oil producing nations around the world since March when a massive supply glut which was exacerbated by the pandemic caused the prices to hit historic lows.
“We did not lay off any worker and God Willing we will lay off no one,” said Zanganeh, adding “One cannot deny the fact; hundreds of oil rigs have become idle in the United States and many companies around the world have cut their development projects.”
Zanganeh said Iran will try to keep operations going at its oil and gas rigs despite “extraordinarily big problems” that the oil sector in the country is faced with.
He said avoiding any halt to operations across the oil and gas installations in Iran had come despite the harsh impacts of the pandemic on an oil industry which was already affected by the American sanctions.
The minister said building out various phases of the giant South Pars gas field, the world’s largest which is shared with Qatar in the Persian Gulf, will continue as planned.
Zanganeh denied reports that Iran had indefinitely halted development operations for Phase 11 of the South Pars, a massive project which began earlier this year two years after major foreign companies withdrew under American pressure.
He said other development projects, including those in the petrochemical sector and refineries, will go on after a short suspension that came because of the pandemic.
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