Iran to reduce oil consumption: official

DUBAI - Iran has embarked on an endeavor to develop green energy in order to reduce its domestic fossil fuel consumption, Iran's oil minister said on Tuesday.

Rostam Qasemi, the oil minister of Iran, said his country plans to increase the production of alternative energy like solar, wind and bio-fuels in order to reduce the usage of its own oil and gas reserves for internal purposes.

"Iran is implementing new economic policies such as subsidies reform, optimizing and standardizing fuel consumption, and changing domestic consuming model," the minister said at the ongoing three-day World Energy Forum 2012 in Dubai. ?

With regard to economic sanctions imposed by the United States and the EU, Qasemi said "sanctions are not new to Iran, we have been dealing with them for more the 30 years," adding that oil demand from emerging markets is rising.

However, Qasemi admitted that the Iranian currency Riyal has fallen 80 percent in value due to the new round of sanctions.