Azerbaijan, Baku, March 6 / Trend M. Moezzi
After imposing sanctions against Iran and its oil industry, the situation in the world's oil markets is "chaotic" Mehr news agency quoted Iran's oil minister as saying.
In other comments today, Rostam Ghasemi said that Iran didn't want to harm the people of France and Great Britain with its decision to stop oil exports to the two countries in the middle of winter. If there was any way to continue working with the two European countries, which have made the efforts to sanction Iran, Iran would have been happy to do so.
The minister said that the plans to nearly double Iran's petrochemical production from 54 million to 100 million tons a year are part of the country's strategy to become the world's leading producer of petrochemical products.
The U.S and EU have recently imposed tougher sanctions against Iran. They have embargoed Iran's oil industry and petroleum products and the U.S. is pressuring other countries to stop doing business with Iran. In late January, the EU foreign ministers agreed to stop buying oil from Iran after current contracts run out by July 1.
The West's measures are part of an effort to make Iran answer the questions about its nuclear program. It says that it is peaceful and civilian in nature.