Iran to stay OPEC head despite ministry changes

10 May 2011 | 23:24 Code : 12634 Latest Headlines

ARAB News-- Iran’s OPEC governor said possible further changes in the structure of its oil ministry will not affect its tenure in the rotating office of the group’s president.

ran holds the one-year presidency of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, the group of 12 nations that pump almost a third of the world’s oil.

Iran has started a move to merge its oil and energy ministries as part of a plan to slim down the number of ministries to 17 from 21.

“Iran is currently holding the chairmanship of OPEC and the post has been delegated to a legal rather than a real entity,” the Fars news agency quoted Mohammad Ali Khatibi as saying.

Local media reported earlier that Oil Minister Massoud Mirkazemi, who is currently the president of the OPEC, will leave his post due to the plan to merge the two ministries.

There have been no official comments on any resignation or dismissal of Mirkazemi, but an energy official said “the chances were high that Mirkazemi would leave his post,” Fars news agency reported.

Parliament speaker Ali Larijani said the ministers of the merged ministries “have to continue to carry out their duties because they have already got the vote of confidence from the Parliament, unless the President himself dismisses them.”

Iran’s oil ministry has direct control of oil and gas production as well as the National Iranian Oil Company that sells its fossil fuels around the world.