Commodity Corner

The big question ahead of the expected arrival in Vienna of the new Iranian oil minister is which door will he use?
Iran’s oil ministers have had a long history of sneaking into the city’s Intercontinental Hotel through the garage, theoretically to avoid the awaiting press.
In practice, journalists are always camped out in the basement, inhaling the fumes of limousines and honing questions to put to OPEC’s second biggest producer.
They also make their way up to the hotel’s executive floors, where the ministers tend to stay, as well as lurking in the lobby, where most officials make their entrance ahead of meetings of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
The new Iranian Oil Minister Massoud Mirkazemi, formerly the country’s commerce minister and regarded as close to the president, could of course decide to say nothing at all regardless of how he gets into his hotel and how many reporters greet him.