“Iran is the only state with exceptional conditions due to its [oil] reserves and production. Assume that our production capacity is four million [barrels per day] while our proven reserves exceed five billion barrels. [Hence] we can claim that we are the only country capable of supplying oil to the world for 150 years to come,” said Masud Mir-Kazemi, who was once Iran’s oil minister and is now the chairman of the Majlis Energy Committee.
“Saudi Arabia’s proven oil reserves are more than Iran’s, with the difference being that the Saudi government is producing over 10 or 11 million barrels. Russia’s [crude oil] reserves and production are also high. Therefore, these countries cannot rely for long on their oil supplies,” he said.
“Under current conditions, we must take energy security into account. We believe the United States is trying through its existing policy to strengthen its control of world energy security,” said Mir-Kazemi.
“We predict that some oil consumer countries like Japan, [South] Korea and China will face US threats in the energy sector. If the US [manages to] dominate the world’s energy resources, it will easily put pressure on the European economy and threaten the economies of China, Korea, Japan and Russia,” he said.
However, when Iran is discussing its nuclear program, it always says its oil reserves will run dry in a few decades and that it therefore must have nuclear power so that it will not become dependent on energy imports in a short while.
Another problem with that argument is that Iran has little in the way of uranium reserves and would have to import uranium very soon in order to fuel all the reactors it says it plans to build. In fact, Iran doesn’t have enough uranium to fuel for five years the 20,000 megawatts of electricity it says it will generate with nuclear reactors.