He added that the Ministry of Oil, alongside other relevant agencies, has a duty to assist in addressing this issue.

On Tuesday evening, Mohsen Paknejad discussed the key topics of his meeting with members of the Parliament’s Plan and Budget Committee.

He explained that the discussion focused on how to achieve the quantitative and qualitative goals of the Seventh Development Plan.

He noted that, over the past four months, his colleagues at the Ministry of Oil have been effectively working to implement this plan.

The minister also stated that he believes the members of the commission were satisfied with the Ministry's responses during the session.

Paknejad also mentioned a meeting with representatives from Tehran Province, where the performance of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC), and National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) was discussed.

He highlighted that the two main topics addressed were the energy imbalance and fuel smuggling. Solutions to prevent these issues from persisting were also proposed.

The oil minister reiterated that addressing fuel smuggling is a public demand, and the Ministry of Oil, in coordination with other responsible agencies, has a role to play in solving this problem.

He expressed hope that progress will be made on this matter in the future.

Paknejad also referred to a recent meeting of the heads of the three branches of government, where decisions were made on addressing imbalances across various sectors, including energy, banking, and pension funds.

 He mentioned that relevant officials participated in the meeting, and solutions were discussed to address these challenges.