Iran’s Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad said oil sales since the start of the war have been favourable, with part of the proceeds set to be used to rebuild the country’s energy industry, state-affiliated Fars News Agency reported — a statement that reveals several things simultaneously about Iran’s economic resilience, its oil export strategy, and the limits of the US sanctions and blockade threat.
The minister’s characterisation of oil sales as favourable since February 28 is striking given that the conflict began with US and Israeli strikes that targeted Iranian infrastructure, closed the Strait of Hormuz, and triggered the most severe disruption to Middle Eastern energy exports in decades. That Iran’s oil minister is describing the revenue picture as favourable rather than damaged suggests that whatever export volumes Iran has managed to move since the war began — primarily to China, which has continued purchasing Iranian crude regardless of US sanctions — have been sold at prices elevated enough by the very same conflict to generate meaningful revenue even at reduced volumes.
The mathematics of wartime oil pricing work in a counterintuitive way for a producer caught in a conflict. Brent crude averaged $99.60 per barrel in March according to OPEC’s April Monthly Oil Market Report, up from a pre-war average closer to $76 per barrel in 2025. The OPEC Reference Basket hit $116.36 per barrel in March. For every barrel Iran managed to export through whatever channels remained available — Chinese buyers, friendly nation arrangements, barter deals — the price received was dramatically higher than what it would have earned in the pre-war environment. The war that disrupted Iran’s export infrastructure simultaneously inflated the value of every barrel it did manage to sell.
The announcement that proceeds will be used to rebuild the industry is the more strategically significant part of the statement. Iranian oil infrastructure — refineries, pipelines, storage facilities, and export terminals — has been damaged by strikes throughout the conflict. The minister’s statement confirms that the rebuilding of that infrastructure is already being planned and funded, suggesting Iran is looking beyond the immediate conflict to the post-war reconstruction of its energy sector capacity. That is a posture of a country that believes the war will end, that it will retain control of its oil resources, and that the revenue from wartime sales at elevated prices gives it the financial means to restore what has been damaged.
The statement also directly addresses the effectiveness of US sanctions. The Iran ambassador to India said on Monday that Tehran has oil and is ready to sell to any country that wants it. The oil minister is now confirming that sales have indeed been happening and generating favourable returns. Together the two statements make explicit what was previously implicit — Iran has been exporting oil throughout the war, primarily to China and through arrangements with friendly nations, at prices high enough to call the revenue outcome favourable even in the middle of a conflict that has disrupted its own production and export infrastructure.
For the US, whose proposed naval blockade of Tehran-linked ships is explicitly designed to cut off Iranian oil revenue and force concessions on uranium enrichment, the oil minister’s statement is a direct challenge to the blockade’s economic logic. If Iran is already characterising wartime oil sales as favourable despite the Hormuz disruption and existing sanctions, the incremental pressure of a naval blockade would need to be significantly more effective than existing measures to change Tehran’s economic calculus before the April 21 ceasefire deadline.
For India, which the Iran ambassador specifically told on Monday that Tehran wants to help and is ready to sell oil to any willing buyer, the oil minister’s favourable sales characterisation confirms that Iranian crude is actively available in the market — at a price and under terms that India would need to weigh against sanctions risk if it chose to pursue large-scale purchases.
Disclaimer: This article is based on Fars News Agency reporting of statements by Iran’s Oil Minister. Business Upturn is not responsible for any decisions made based on this article.