Iran says sanctions not deterring foreign oil firms

TEHRAN, April 16 (Reuters) - Sanctions are not hampering Iran's oil industry or deterring foreign firms from investing in it, the country's oil minister said on Wednesday.

The United States, leading efforts to isolate Iran over its nuclear ambitions, has long imposed sanctions that target the Islamic Republic's oil industry and other areas. Washington has been urging foreign oil and other firms to stay away.

The U.N. Security Council also slapped sanctions on Iran because of the nuclear row. Those U.N. measures are not aimed at the oil sector but industry experts say the standoff is making Western firms in particular more wary.

"Sanctions and threats are old, dull and ineffective instruments for Iran's oil industry," Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari told an energy conference in Tehran.

"Foreign companies are still coming to invest in Iran."

Iran regularly dismisses the impact of sanctions on its economy. Analysts say the measures are pushing up the cost of doing business in Iran but also say the world's fourth largest oil producer has windfall oil earnings to cushion the impact.

Nozari said the presence of many Iranian and foreign energy firms showed "the slogans of global arrogance have no place in Iran's oil industry and the oil industry has no worries about meeting its development and management goals."

Iran often refers to the United States as "global arrogance."

Although many Western firms have shown increasing reluctance to invest or expand operations in Iran, Asian companies including from China have been signing up to energy projects.

The West accuses Iran of seeking to produce nuclear weapons. Tehran denies this, insisting it wants nuclear technology so it can generate electricity and save more of its oil and gas for export. (Reporting by Parisa Hafezi and Hashem Kalantari; editing by James Jukwey)