TEHRAN – Iran’s new Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad has outlined the ministry’s short-term plans, stressing resolving the energy imbalance in the country as a priority, Shana reported.

Speaking to the press on Thursday, the first day of his office as the oil minister, Paknejad said he is not considering increasing the price of energy carriers as an approach to resolve imbalance but the main solution will be using alternative fuels like gas to do so.

“Non-price solutions that go beyond the Oil Ministry, that is, in cooperation with other organizations and ministries, will be on the agenda so that without increasing the price of gasoline for instance, it will be possible to balance the production and consumption,” he explained.

“[In my future plans portfolio] I have presented detailed operational solutions to solve this problem to the parliament and the specialized committees, of course, this does not mean that energy imbalance in the country can be resolved completely in a short time, but it could be somewhat moderated,” the minister added.

Referring to the valuable measures taken by the 13th government in the field of energy diplomacy including the import of gas from Turkmenistan in the form of a gas swap deal, he said: “Since part of this gas is going to be consumed in the country, it also helps to resolve the gas imbalance.”

Regarding the plans of the Oil Ministry to solve the gasoline shortage, Paknejad said: "Currently, price solutions are never considered to solve the gasoline shortage."

He further noted that the model of the financial relationship between the government and the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), which has been defined for many years, needs to be revised.

“We are considering new models for using resources outside the Oil Ministry and not necessarily foreign investment. One example is to use the financial resources of major gas-consuming companies and industries such as petrochemicals to involve these companies in the development of the oil industry’s upstream sector,” the official said.

EF/MA