TEHRAN April 20(Shana)--A deputy minister of petroleum has criticized insufficient investment made in Iran�s oil sector due to the payment of monthly cash handouts.

Mansour Moazzami, deputy minister for planning and supervision on hydrocarbon reserves, said the total investments made in the petroleum industry since 2011 up to last February reached USD 68.7 billion.
He added that the investment envisaged for the petroleum industry for the Fifth Five-Year Economic Development Plan (which ended in March) up to that time was $50 billion a year.


�The petroleum industry is paying IRR 35,000 billion in monthly handouts in exchange for subsidies. Payment of this amount of cash grounds all projects of this industry,� he said.

By SHANA