Industry Veteran Proposed for Iran Oil Minister

Parisa Hafezi, Reuters:

Acting Iranian Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh was nominated on Sunday to run the world's fourth biggest crude producer as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sought to end months of political infighting over the post.

Since August, Ahmadinejad has nominated three other people but failed to win backing from parliamentarians, who are angry that he is not consulting them about his choices and who accuse him of nominating close allies rather than oil industry veterans. READ MORE

His fourth nominee served in the previous government as a deputy oil minister for co-ordination affairs and is the acting oil minister.

Vaziri-Hamaneh's nomination was read out to lawmakers by Parliament Speaker Gholamali Haddadadel in a parliament session broadcast live on state radio.

Haddadadel said lawmakers would vote on the nomination next week.

Hossein Afarideh, from parliament's energy commission, said last week lawmakers had a "positive view" of Vaziri-Hamaneh, whose policy objectives are not yet clear, but Iranian media has said he is in tune with the president's conservative agenda.

Ahmadinejad made oil central to his presidential campaign in June, vowing to distribute earnings more fairly, favor domestic over foreign investors and combat the oil "mafia" he said runs the industry.

Playing down investor fears, Vaziri-Hamaneh said the nature of foreign investment would have to change but underlined that international companies were welcome partners.

"The deals are not going to be 'buy-backs' because the establishment did not approve and financing is difficult, so we have to look for other methods," he said.

"But we want to continue using foreign partners," he added.

Much-criticised "buy-back" contracts are the standard form of energy investment in Iran. Foreign investors are rewarded for developing oilfields with a share of output. The state then repurchases the field after a short period.

It is not immediately clear what foreign investment method Vazir-Hamaneh would prefer.

(Additional reporting by Alireza Ronaghi)