TEHRAN - Iran’s Oil Minister Javad Oji has said that sanctions and acts of sabotage have failed to stop the country’s progress in the oil industry, with the Islamic Republic now exporting its oil to any destination it wants.

“Neither sanctions nor sabotage acts halted our progress, and according to the Central Bank of Iran’s statistics, we are now witnessing economic growth”, Oji said.

 “Despite the heaviest sanctions, we export oil to wherever we want, and the government’s accomplishments caused the enemy to focus on this [energy] industry, as they carried out sabotage acts on four pipelines of the national gas grid, but we managed to resolve the problems”, the minister added.

In addition, he noted, the country managed to increase its fuel and gas reserves to 1.0 billion and 3.0 billion liters respectively during the current Iranian year which will end on March 19.

He made the comments on Sunday at the signing ceremony of contracts between the Oil Ministry and Iranian contractors on a plan to increase gas pressure at the South Pars Gas Field, south of the country.

The contracts, worth $20 billion, were signed with Petropars, Oil Industries' Engineering and Construction (OIEC), MAPNA, and engineering firm Khatam-al Anbiya Construction Headquarters.

The minister said that the plan helps prevent a drop in pressure at gas reserves at the South Pars field. This will also increase Iran’s gas extraction by 2.5 billion cubic meters and will raise the country’s gas condensates production by 2 billion barrels, generating $900 billion.

EF/