Info:
Bijan Namdar Zangeneh is an Iranian politician, who served as minister at different cabinets after the Islamic Revolution for 32 years. He has been serving as oil minister since 15 August 2013 in the cabinet led by Hassan Rouhani;
The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is designating the Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zanganeh, for being a leader or official of the Ministry of Petroleum;
The Iranian Ministry of Petroleum has been used by individuals at the highest levels of the Iranian regime to facilitate the IRGC-QF’s revenue generation scheme. In mid-2019, the Ministry of Petroleum arranged the loading of hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil for shipments to Syria, and in mid-2020 the IRGC-QF and senior regime officials coordinated to use the Ministry of Petroleum to procure U.S. dollars for the benefit of the IRGC-QF;
NIOC, overseen by the Ministry of Petroleum, is responsible for the exploration, production, refining, and export of oil and petroleum products in Iran. NITC, a subsidiary of NIOC, is responsible for the transportation of Iranian crude exports. NIOC and NITC provide both the oil and tankers for the sale of Iranian oil by the IRGC-QF. The cooperation and coordination between the IRGC-QF and these entities extends well beyond the simple sale of oil, including coordination between NIOC and the Central Bank of Iran to facilitate the collection of tens of millions of dollars in proceeds from the sale of oil that benefitted the IRGC-QF;
“The regime in Iran uses the petroleum sector to fund the destabilizing activities of the IRGC-QF,” said Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin. “The Iranian regime continues to prioritize its support for terrorist entities and its nuclear program over the needs of the Iranian people.”
Following the 1979 revolution, Zangeneh was appointed deputy for the minister of culture and Islamic guidance in 1980. In 1983, he was made minister of construction jihad. He was appointed minister of energy in the government of Mir-Hossein Mousavi in 1988. He also served as the energy minister in Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani’s cabinet and made massive efforts for reconstruction and rehabilitation of the country’s water and electricity industry in the aftermath of the 1980–1988 Iran–Iraq War and the damages caused to the industry in the Iraqi attacks. He was the minister of petroleum in Mohammad Khatami’s cabinet. Zangeneh was replaced by Kazem Vaziri Hamane in the post on 29 August 2005 as appointed by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He was appointed as a member of the Expediency Council by the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in 1996. He taught at several universities and academic centers; but he was basically a faculty member at K. N. Toosi University of Technology. In early August 2013, Zangeneh was nominated as the petroleum minister by President Rouhani and was confirmed on 15 August. On 21 August Zanganeh was named as the head of Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) for 2013. Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh was appointed as Zangeneh’s deputy on 3 September.
Industry:
Oil Industry
Also Known As:
Bijan Namdar Zangeneh
Born:
Mar 1952
Country:
Iran
Address:
Kermanshah, Iran
Nationality:
Iranian