RoydadNaft –  A member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly’s economic committee said a parliamentary inquiry into the National Iranian Oil Company has begun. He listed the main aims as a precise review of violations, recovery of public assets, identification and action against those involved, and reform of oil-sales processes.

According to Roydad Naft, citing Tasnim, Hossein Samsami said the inquiry into NIOC has been launched in parliament and the text has been uploaded to the assembly’s system.

The main goals, he said, are a full assessment of the scale of violations and the recovery of the nation’s rights; identification of those who ordered, carried out, or acted as intermediaries in the violations, and action against them; and a basic overhaul of processes so similar cases are not repeated.

With the economy under what he called an all-out economic war, and with one aim of that pressure being to disrupt Iran’s financial and foreign-exchange arteries, the method of selling oil and the role of intermediaries are especially important, Samsami said.

He claimed there are documents and evidence on how the oil-sales network and trustees have operated that parliament must examine closely, and that the cases cannot be treated merely as commercial error or weak management.

Among the points the inquiry will review, he said, are the transfer of tens of millions of barrels of strategic national assets to non-Iranian persons and intermediaries he described as lacking the required qualifications, the application of other countries’ laws in contracts, and delivery of oil at the origin without adequate guarantees.

The Tehran lawmaker also pointed to debts owed by some trustees. Questions put to the Oil Ministry about indebted trustees remain unanswered, he said, which adds to the need for a full review.

Confidentiality around some sanctions-countering processes should not block parliamentary oversight of how national resources and assets are protected, Samsami said.

He said the inquiry’s final aim is to recover the nation’s rights, examine possible networks of misconduct and influence, refer offenders to judicial and security authorities, and reform the financial and commercial processes tied to Iran’s oil sales.