Unknown Named as Iran Oil Minister

Reuters, CNN:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad nominated Sadeq Mahsouli, a total unkown in the energy business, as oil minister of the world's fourth biggest crude producer on Wednesday.

The job is the most prestigious and hotly contested post in Iran's cabinet, steering the energy policy of the second biggest exporter in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

"Oil Minister: Sadeq Mahsouli," said a parliamentary secretary reading out the presidential nominations to parliament.

The original candidate delivered to the parliamentary energy commission board had been conservative academic Aliasghar Zarei. It was not immediately clear why the nomination had switched to Mahsouli.

The twists and turns of Ahmadinejad's attempts to install an oil minister lay bare the deep rifts within Iran's conservative camp.

Mohsen Yahyavi, one of Iran's most experienced oil men, a board member of the state oil company and member of parliament's energy commission, said he had never heard of Mahsouli.

"As someone who is in the picture, I have no information regarding who this gentleman is ... nobody in the parliament knows him either," he told Reuters.

"Presumably the amount of information that we have about him is about as much as he knows about oil," he added. READ MORE

"We shall see if he has been in any major management position to obtain the experience he needs... but I think that is highly unlikely."

Mahsouli now faces a parliamentary vote of confidence.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made oil a keystone of his conservative reform manifesto, vowing to distribute the country's oil wealth more fairly and rid the industry of the "mafias" he says run it.

He also pledged to favour domestic over foreign investors.

Ahmadinejad's first nominee for oil minister, Ali Saeedlou, was rejected by lawmakers in August, hurling Iranian oil policy into limbo.

The lawmakers argued Saeedlou, a close political ally of the president, did not have enough direct knowledge of the oil business.