Hossein Afarideh told PIN that a large number of lawmakers were from the very beginning opposed to this basic pricing. “We did not favor the 40 dollars per barrel price for budget calculation. Now we have come to that point in the wake of our deliberations,” he said. Afarideh said the fourth five-year economic development plan seeks to wean the nation off oil dependence. “In that case, we can deposit extra petrodollars into the Oil Stabilization Fund.”