Iran will stop oil exports if Western sanctions become stricter. This was stated by Iranian Oil Minister Rustam Qasemi, reports Reuters .

The official added that the Islamic Republic has a “Plan B” to maintain stability without oil revenues. Kashemi did not explain what this plan was. He noted that Iran has been successfully surviving under US sanctions for 30 years and managing the oil industry.

The Iranian minister noted that daily oil production in the country is still at the level of four million barrels. Thus, Kashemi denied earlier media reports that oil production in Iran fell to 2.72 million barrels per day in September.

At the same time, Kashemi refused to announce data on hydrocarbon exports. In October, the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimated the volume of exports from Iran at 860 thousand barrels per day. For comparison, at the end of 2011 Iran sold abroad 2.2 million barrels per day.

Sanctions against Iran, in particular the oil embargo, were introduced by the United States and the European Union, which demand that Tehran stop development in the nuclear field. Western states suspect that the Iranian side intends to create nuclear weapons, while Tehran claims that the atomic program is exclusively peaceful.

Despite the assertions of the Iranian authorities that the country can survive without oil exports for at least three years, the sanctions have already led to dire consequences for the Iranian economy. Thus, the local currency, the rial, has fallen in price by more than half since the beginning of the year.

Iran threatens to stop oil exports