Speaking on Thursday, the first day of his tenure, Mr. Owji said, “I am a servant of the oil industry family; I have been educated in this field and have served this field for 35 years in the upstream and downstream sectors.”

Regarding the most important priorities of the industry that are on the agenda, he said: "The most important issue that should be seriously pursued is gas imbalance and winter fuel supply, which is very important. Today we will have the first meeting of the Council of Deputies and a meeting for winter fuel soon. We will hold it with the Ministry of Energy.”

The Minister of Oil considered the maintenance of production, organization of human capital, sale of oil and gas condensate, prevention of crude sales and entry into the chain of complementary industries as the main priorities of the oil industry. Owji touched on the upcoming OPEC+ meeting and the return of Iranian oil into the market, saying: "World oil demand is increasing due to vaccination; undoubtedly, one of our plans is to strengthen Iran's status in OPEC and take back our markets.”

He said: "Identifying new markets for oil will be one of our main tasks and we will take back what is the right of the Islamic Republic of Iran."

Javad Owji was elected Minister of Petroleum of the 13th administration yesterday (Wednesday, August 25) with 198 votes in favor by the lawmakers.