Iranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh says the illegal sanctions imposed by the United States on Tehran have failed to stop the country's oil exports.
Zangeneh made the remarks on Saturday at a ceremony in Tehran on Saturday to sign a $440 million contract by Iran's Petropars to develop the Belal gas field in the Persian Gulf.
Petropars, a subsidiary of the state-run National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), is to produce 500 million cubic feet per day of gas from the field.
Zangeneh said in addition to Belal gas field, Iran plans to begin operation at Farzad B gas field this year and resume developing Phase 11 of the giant South Pars gas field.
"Despite US sanctions, the train of the oil industry development has not stopped and the performance of the Ministry of Petroleum is a prime example of the Resistance Economy," Zangeneh said.
In the future, he added, further contracts will be announced and more projects will be unveiled.
"Sanctions have not stopped us; we are alive; we are active and are making efforts for the sake of Iran's oil industry," he said.
The US has unleashed the “toughest ever” sanctions against Tehran, notably targeting its key oil exports, since scrapping the 2015 nuclear deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
In April, the White house terminated sanctions waivers for major buyers of crude from the Islamic Republic in an attempt to bring Iran’s oil exports to “zero.”
The move sent oil prices soaring to an unprecedented level since November 2018 and drew harsh criticisms from the main customers of Iranian oil.