Iranian oil industry is turning 100 years, but we must not forget that during the early years after oil was discovered in Iran, the industry was not run by Iranians. It was managed by British manpower that was present in the Iranian oil industry from the very beginning. After nationalization of the Iranian oil industry, the British manpower lost its monopoly over the sector and domestic manpower was given an opportunity to take steps toward self-sufficiency. Afterwards, the American companies secured their own monopoly on the Iranian oil industry and the trend came to an end with the victory of the Islamic Revolution (1979) when Iranians took hold of the industry.

Although Iran boasts the world’s second biggest oil and gas resources, it has been target of economic sanctions by hegemonic powers of the world who have also tried to establish their full control over regional oil resources by invading some regional countries. The invasions have created an atmosphere of insecurity in the world and concerns about geopolitical developments, especially in the Middle East have increased risk of investment in regional oil industries. This has led to reduced investment in those industries. Of course, most producers have tried to keep up their production and do away with part of international markets’ concerns.

Domestic planners and experts are well aware that the Iranian economy, like other economic systems in oil producing countries, is dependent on the oil revenues and this means that its economy is affected by sudden increase or decrease in price of this international energy carrier. We must still be sorry that after 100 years Iran has not been able to play its deserved role in global oil trade and has simply supplied crude oil to limited markets. Of course, preliminary steps have been taken in this regard and we must keep our fingers crossed as to the success of those steps.

When studying the present conditions of domestic oil industry, we must pay attention to this reality that experiences gained by the Iranian manpower are all that is needed to develop this industry and domestic capacities are enough to serve this purpose. However, we must work harder in such fields as manufacturing equipment and installations. Although special attention has been paid to these issues during the past few years, we have still a long way to go before we reach a point which would deserve our 100-year oil industry.

Progress along that long route depends on the speed of activities and development of capacities in various sections of the oil industry. It also depends on client and contractor companies, especially that geographical coordinates of crude oil supply and demand in the world are changing. Since about 70 percent of the world’s oil reserves are located in the Persian Gulf and Caspian Sea, the two regions are sure to draw considerable attention from major energy consumers of the world in the years to come.