Iran’s Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad has resigned for personal reasons, state news agency IRNA reported on Sunday, citing Mehdi Tabatabaei, communications deputy in the president’s office.
Paknejad, who had served as oil minister of the OPEC member since August 2024, stepped down as the seven-month-old war between Iran and the United States put pressure on the country’s economy.
Tabatabaei told state television that Paknejad had submitted his resignation “a long time ago” and that President Masoud Pezeshkian had accepted it at the minister’s insistence.
Hamid Bovard, chief executive of the state-owned National Iranian Oil Company, has been appointed acting oil minister, Tabatabaei said.
Before news of his resignation, state media quoted Paknejad as saying that “revenues of the oil that we have sold are still coming and that will continue God willing”.
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