Change of guard for Iran's energy industry

Change of guard: Iran’s Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi

VAHE PETROSSIAN

By Vahe Petrossian London

 10 January 2013 23:59 GMT

The tough US and European Union sanctions of recent years against Iran’s energy sector have encouraged the rise of a new breed of oil and gas barons in Tehran wearing the uniforms of the Revolutionary Guards and other security agencies and working with members of a powerful merchant class.

So noticeable has this phenomenon become that questions are being asked in Tehran and elsewhere about the economic and political consequences for the country.

The new elite running the country has made no secret of its plans for the oil and gas sector — especially with the arrival at the Oil Ministry in 2011 of Rostam Qasemi as the minister in charge of the country’s main foreign currency earner.

Qasemi, former head of Khatam ol-Anbya, the business and construction arm of the Revolutionary Guards modelled on the US Army Corps of Engineers in…

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