By Kayhan Life Staff
Iran’s Minister of Petroleum, Javad Owji, was hospitalized after a heart attack on Dec. 5, the Tehran-Based Borna news agency reported.
He was attending a meeting on the government’s 2022-23 budget when he reportedly fell ill.
The report added that Mr. Owji received medical care at a government hospital.
“Owji has been under much pressure recently for trying to increase the sale of oil, address the 2022-23 budget and the winter fuel [shortage],” Borna said. “Owj had even gone to the gas dispatch center to coordinate fuel distribution.”
[aesop_image img=”https://kayhanlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/vazir-naft-1.jpg” panorama=”off” credit=”Javad Owji. KL” align=”center” lightbox=”on” captionsrc=”custom” captionposition=”left” revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]
The oil and energy news website, Naftonline, tweeted: “Javad Owji, the Minister of Petroleum of the 13th government, was taken to a hospital after suffering a heart attack on the sideline of a cabinet meeting. According to the latest reports, he receives medical care and is in stable condition. Naftonline wishes the oil minister a speedy recovery.”
The tweet included a picture of Owji on a hospital trolly.
A severe gas shortage during the winter months prompted Iran’s Supreme National Security Council to pass a resolution “penalizing customers in the government and the private sector for unnecessary and wasteful [gas] usage,” the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported on Dec. 14.
In comments reported by the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) on the same day, Moslem Rahmani, the gas distribution coordinator of the National Iranian Gas Company, said the gas supply had been cut off to 185 organizations for “failing to abide by the guidelines for gas usage and temperature control in offices.”
After their gas supplies were cut off, many factories have reportedly been burning diesel fuel, which is harmful to the population..
The Majlis (Iranian Parliament) has repeatedly warned Owji and several other cabinet ministers about the gas and oil crisis in the country and the use of diesel fuel in factories.
Several economists have warned that cutting the gas supply to Iranian industries will raise the foreign exchange rate.
Less than a week before Oil Minister Owji’s heart attack, Rostam Ghasemi, Iranian Minister of Road, and Urban Development, died on Dec. 8 from an unknown illness in China.
Some people regard the death of Mr. Ghasemi as suspicious.
Ghasemi was a former member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) with the rank of brigadier general. He also served as ran’s minister of petroleum from 2011 to 2013.
