"In one case, the State Audit Court accused the ministry of dlrs 21 billion fraud with the Crescent company, whereas, no contract has been implemented with that company and no gas has been exported on the basis of the draft contract," Vaziri Hamaneh said. He said that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad supports the Oil Ministry and he held a meeting with officials of the ministry yesterday. "President Ahmadinejad took part in the meeting of council of oil minister's deputies and was briefed on future plans of four subsidiary companies of the Oil Ministry," Vaziri Hamaneh said. "We explained the bottlenecks of the Oil Ministry to the president and he put forward directives to deal with them and promised to help the ministry overcome the difficulty in the oil industry," Vaziri Hamaneh said. President Ahmadinejad believes that the oil industry is capable of supporting national industrial development and said that the oil industry is expected to emerge successful in doing its own responsibility and helping industrial development as well. PEACE PIPELINE Vaziri Hamaneh said that the contract to pipe Iranian gas to India and Pakistan would serve regional peace and friendship. He hoped that the pipeline would be set up soon. The minister said that an agreement has been made to hold tripartite meeting between Iran, Pakistan and India. "There is unanimity among all partners. Of course such a large project can not be implemented in a short time. We still should sign extra accords on executive works and price," he said. On capacity of crude oil production, the minister said that the current capacity is 4,050,000 barrels per day (bpd) and it would reach 4,100,000 bpd in the beginning of the next Iranian year, 1385 (starts March 21, 2006). Asked about the vulnerability of national oil industry in case of economic sanctions, Vaziri Hamaneh said that the oil industry did not stop functioning during eight years of Iraqi-imposed war (1980-1988) and it will not stop in case of economic sanctions either. PIN/IRNA