Thursday, August 20, 2009

Iranian Oil: Transformation from the Old Guards to the Revolutionary Guards

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been campaigning for the past four years on breaking up the country’s oil mafia. Yesterday he named former IRGC senior officer Masoud Mir Kazemin to head the ministry of oil. Ahmadinejad’s idea of breaking up the oil mafia seems to be merely a change of guards: from the old guards to the revolutionary guards!

IRGC already controls big chunks of Iran’s commerce and they practically control the country’s construction industry. Now with the oil added to their growing portfolio of commodities and services, they can go after the old guards and control the country’s biggest industry, oil and gas.

Mir-Kazemi served as minister of commerce during Ahmadinejad’s first term. Prior to that, he headed IRGC’s Center for Strategic Studies and its Shahed University.

Iran is OPEC’s second-largest oil producer, pumping 3.79 million barrels a day.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

To be honest, I would rather have a bunch of religious idealistic nationalists running the Iranian Oil, than a bunch of narcissistic soul less corporates.

Other words its a case of the famous lesser evil.