[Raj_Copi_Jin]

The key though is that 15 years ago, Iran commissioned a study by ELF Acquitaine on investment into their energy infrastructure. Iran had neglected almost all of its own infrastructure since the Iranian Revolution in 1979 and then for another 10 years in the Iran-Iraq war. The results of that study indicated that Iran had to invest in a crash program for the next 20 years just to catch up with where it should be been had it done no new development or modernization. Since that time Iran still hasn't put much into that investments stream. The reasons are obvious - economic mismanagement and pouring billions into nuclear weapons. So while in theory Iran might be sitting on rich energy resources they have little capacity to get it out of the ground and make any money doing it.