(CNSNews.com) – For the first time since the Islamic revolution, Iran has been handed the rotating presidency of the OPEC cartel of oil-producing nations. The move comes at a time when Western governments are seeking to target Iran’s energy sector over its nuclear programs.

OPEC ministers meeting in Vienna Thursday elected Iran’s oil minister, Masoud Mirkazemi, to chair the 12-nation organization during 2011. His Iraqi counterpart, Hussain Al-Shahristani, will serve as alternate president, OPEC said in a statement.

Participants said the election had been a unanimous one by the group, whose members range from U.S. allies such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to historically hostile countries including Venezuela, Libya and Iran itself.

It remains to be seen whether Iran will use the presidency to push once again for oil to be priced against a currency, or basket of currencies, other than the U.S. dollar.

At an OPEC summit in 2007, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad joined his Venezuelan and Ecuadorian allies, Hugo Chavez and Rafael Correa, in pushing for such a change, citing the weakness of the greenback and its effect on oil producers’ earnings.

Led by the Saudi summit hosts, however, the gathering decided not to pursue the politically charged issue.

Iran’s election as OPEC president for next year comes amid attempts by the U.S. and European Union to escalate pressure on Tehran and its controversial nuclear activities by taking aim at its oil and gas processing, sales and imports.

U.S. legislation enacted three months ago penalizes companies that sell gasoline or other refined petroleum products to Iran or support its domestic refining efforts. E.U. sanctions target the export of equipment benefiting Iran’s energy sector.

The State Department announced on the last day of September that four major European oil companies had committed to stopping business with Iran. It also named another company, a Swiss-based subsidiary of Iran’s national oil company, as the first to face sanctions under the new law. The Iranian government – not for the first time – on Thursday dismissed the sanctions as ineffective.

Iran has nine oil refineries, including this one on Lavan Island in the Persian Gulf (Photo: Shana.ir)

Speaking in Vienna, Mirkazemi told reporters the sanctions have had “no impact whatsoever,” but had provided an opportunity for the energy sector to become self-sufficient.

Iran is OPEC’s second-largest oil producer and boasts its second-largest proven reserves, after Saudi Arabia. In 2009, Iran’s crude production was approximately 3.8 million barrels per day, according to the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Agency (EIA).

Because of limited refinery capacity – its nine refineries together produced about 1.5 million barrels of gasoline per day last year, says the EIA – the country has had to import up to 40 percent of its supply.

Mirkazemi claimed that Iran planned to build six new refineries in the next three years.

Thursday’s meeting agreed to make no change to the cartel’s official oil production target of about 24.8 million barrels per day.

It doing so it stuck with a policy that has been in place since the end of 2008, when it announced a significant cut of 4.2 million barrels per day, following a drop in prices and demand as a result of the global economic slowdown. Its previous cut before that, of 500,000 barrels per day, was announced in December 2006 and later reversed.

Crude oil is currently trading at about $83 a barrel.

OPEC, which turned 50 last month, comprises Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Venezuela, Ecuador, Algeria, Qatar, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Nigeria, Angola and Libya. Indonesia was a member but withdrew in 2008.