TEHRAN – Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said on Tuesday that the outbreak of the coronavirus did not halt the country’s oil production for even one day, Shana reported.

Elaborating on the Oil Ministry’s measures for containing coronavirus pandemic, Zanganeh noted that since the very beginning of the outbreak the ministry made serious efforts to prevent any stoppage in the oil production while protecting the workforce.

"The Oil Ministry was one of the first bodies to take the lead due to the sensitivity of activities and the impossibility of shutting down oil activities," he said.

“If oil and gas are not produced, electricity and water will not be produced,” Zanganeh stressed.

Zanganeh had previously announced that Oil Ministry’s measures were taken in four phases of prevention, readiness, confrontation, and returning to normal conditions.

Mentioning the drastic fall of the global oil prices and the U.S. sanctions along with the pandemic, Zanganeh noted that the oil industry is going through a hard time but people are shouldering the real burden.

Back in March, Zanganeh had said that the coronavirus outbreak did not halt oil production in the country.

Later that month, the minister and Head of National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Masoud Karbasian had discussed necessary measures for containing the coronavirus in the Iranian oil industry’s operational areas.

In the meeting, the oil minister also discussed ways of preventing the spread of coronavirus in the oil, gas, refining, and petrochemical operational areas with his deputies and managers of operating companies via videoconference.

EF/MA