That's just another example of how most countries with lots of oil resources and wealth completely squander it.

Many of those countries control the price of gas and keep it artificially low. I'm sure that's a significant drain on the oil that they could be selling at market price.

This means that the state is missing out on revenue that it could use to pull the country out of third world status. And the oil in Iran is all nationalized, so that means that the oil company is accountable to no one, and probably closed to outside scrutiny.

Everyone complains about the evil Exxon or Chevron, but at least those are public companies, their shares are traded. You can read their annual reports, read the salaries of the board of directors. And if someone in the company makes what you deem is an obscene amount of money, its there for public record.

Steve