MP: Saudis decrease oil price to $83 per barrel, decline continues

Tehran, Nov 9, IRNA – Saudis with their huge energy resources whose income normally fills princes’ pockets have lowered world oil prices down to $83 per barrel and that declining trend still continues, vice chairman of Iranian Parliament’s Energy Commission said here Saturday. “Problems and threats due to the lowered oil prices might arise in the future and there is no way but to detach the (Iranian) budget from the oil incomes,” said Nasser Soudani, in a joint session between the Majlis Energy Commission and Tehran Chamber of Commerce. Addressing the economic activists present in the meeting, Soudani said that it will not suffice to wait and see what measures the government will adopt to counter the negative effects of this decline, as it is you who should say what the private sector can do to detach the country’s economy form the oil income. He said that the world has still not believed the real capabilities of Iran and neither have the big world powers confessed to Iran’s right to be independent in the world. Soudani asked the members of Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture to present their written proposals to the Energy Commission of the Parliament. Presenident Hassan Rouhani in a report to the parliament announced that the country's oil incomes have decreased by 30%./end