Iran’s state-owned gas company said over the weekend that it is facing collapse, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The chief executive officer of state-owned National Iranian Gas Company said the company has declared bankruptcy with a debt of $4 billion, the Wall Street Journal reports:
The company tried to backtrack on the comments Monday. Majid Boujarzadeh, a spokesman reached by phone, denied it was bankrupt. But media reports also quoted Iran's oil minister, Bijan Zangeneh, as saying the gas company "is destroyed."
The sanctions, aimed at preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, have devastated the country's critical energy industry. While gas is a relatively small income generator, oil exports, a major revenue source, have been slashed by nearly half since the beginning of 2012. […]
In Washington, lawmakers have cited the effectiveness of sanctions in arguing for intensifying them. However, President Barack Obama has invited senators to meet on Tuesday as the White House increases pressure on Congress to back the negotiations with Iran. [...]
Sanctions have forced the country to curb natural gas projects such as expansion of pipelines and dashed hopes of exporting to Europe.