Interview with Chris Cook, inventor of the Iran Oil Bourse

The next few days, the world will be holding its breath as the U.S. is drumming up support for highly controversial sanctions against Iran. The implications of such a move could be potentially disastrous and it’s likely we’ll see a showdown of who holds what kind of power and where on the planet. In a bizarre twist of fate, a UK consortium that is involved in developing the Iran Oil Bourse (IOB), might stand to benefit from sanctions.

Chris Cook, 52, the former director of the International Petroleum Exchange, is the originator of the idea behind the IOB. He’s planning to go back to Iran, from his native England, after Ramadan, and set to work again on the launch of this bourse which cuts out the dollar as a currency in which to trade oil.


He believes that if sanctions are imposed, he’ll be able to live with one less worry; a bigger company won’t come along and snatch his business from him.”[Sanctions are not going to harm us] in the slightest. In fact it’s brilliant for us, because we know that the big consultants aren’t going to come in and then sub-contract us at [low] rates.”

He is part of the Wimpole Consortium that’s commissioned by the Iranian government with creating the IOB. Cook’s been plodding on in Iran for the last three years. Without success. He wasn’t even paid for his work for over two years. The platform’s launch, much hyped in the media, has been delayed time and again. Iranian oil ministry officials have been hampering his work. In utter desperation, he decided a while ago to write to President Ahmedinejad. Who soon afterwards finally managed to brush off some of his own enemies in the Majlis and ordered a drastic shake up of the Oil Ministry.

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