• Isolation of Iran following UNSC sanctions will deter EU, Russia, Japan — which currently do have a stake — and other major economies from investing any further

• Iran unable to keep its commitments of oil exports even to OECD countries

• With inadequate refining capability, Iran is refining just 1.3 billion barrels of oil per day, which is even below its modest capacity of about 1.6 billion barrels per day

• Iranian economy ‘‘grossly mismanaged’’, with international banks already pulling out of the country

• Ahmadinejad under tremendous ‘‘domestic pressure’’

Despite this, the view taken — and voiced later by Union Petroleum Minister Murli Deora during talks with his Iranian counterpart Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh on April 25 — was that it would still be better to remain engaged with Iran. Deora asked Hamaneh to honour the contract the contract for 5 million tonnes of LNG signed between state-run companies of both sides.

Iran says that the LNG Supply and Purchase Agreement signed in June 2005 was no longer valid and wants to renegotiate the crude oil-linked LNG price to $55 a barrel from the agreed $31 a barrel.