Ali Mobini Dehkordi, head of the Institute for International Energy Studies, a subsidiary of the Oil Ministry, made the statement in a conference on ‘Development of Petroleum Financial System’ in Tehran on Monday, ILNA reported.

“Consumption of this amount of energy is five times higher than the global average and 12 times the average of  developed countries (like Japan),” Dehkordi said, warning that not cutting the massive use will lead to irreparable damages (in long term) under the US sanctions regime.

Now that the sanctions have been imposed by the US government “using energy prudently must be a priority. Needless to say, the oil industry’s development has visibly slowed down due to the financial restrictions,” Financial Tribune quoted him as saying.

“We never said that the oil industry does not need foreign investment or advanced technology. These can expedite development projects, but not having access to it does not mean that incomplete oil projects cannot be funded and should be put on hold forever.”

Turning to funding alternatives, Hossein Abdoh Tabrizi a veteran financial advisor noted that National Iranian Oil Company should also look at options (other than crude exports).

US sanctions on the oil, banking and shipping sectors announced in 2018 have significantly undermined NIOC’s foreign businesses, namely crude oil exports.

Abdoh Tabrizi says under the current circumstances NIOC needs to consider financial instruments like the capital market and other possible ways for funding, one of which is issuing participatory and Islamic bonds (Sukuk), which of course are short-term solutions.

“If (and when) negotiations to open Chinese and Russian credit lines produce the desired results, we can be hopeful of non-dollar trade with countries,” he was quoted as saying.

According to Masoud Karbasian, managing director of NIOC, the firm raised $700 million in revenues by selling oil and petroleum byproducts in the capital market in the past eight months.

Karbasian said, without elaboration, that this money will be used to fund EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) and EPD (engineering, procurement and drilling) projects.