Iran is facing a crisis in its vital oil industry due to the emigration of its expert manpower to countries offering much higher wages and benefits, a senior lawmaker said in the daily Qods newspaper on Saturday.

"Unfortunately, the outpouring of the cream of the crop and experts with high academic credentials in oil companies is very high," said Emad Hosseini, spokesman of parliament's energy committee.

He said up to 60 per cent of expert workers in the state oil industry have already left the country.

Hosseini attributed the exodus to the low wages which amount to about one-fifth of what an oil industry worker would in similar jobs in other Gulf countries or in the West.

He said unless the government changes laws to allow the oil industry to pay higher wages the remaining specialist oil industry workers will leave the country.

Qolam-Reza Manouchehri, an oil industry expert now serving as the managing director of the state-owned Petropars Oil and Gas Co, said the disparity in wages was even greater.

"Presently, the difference in wage and benefits between those of expert Iranian oil workers compared to those paid by foreign companies is about one to 10," said Manouchehi, who also attributed the low wages to restrictive laws.

Another possible reason for a brain drain in the industry is that since Ahmadinejad came to power in 2005, promising to fight what he called the "oil mafia", most reformist-minded officials have been pushed to resign.

Manouchehi said that without speedy changes to the law in support of domestic experts, the attraction of working for foreign companies will create a serious shortage in the oil industry.

Opec member Iran is the world's fourth biggest oil producer with the globes's second largest gas reserves but has struggled for years to develop its oil and gas reserves.

The Islamic republic says it needs around $25 billion a year in oil and gas industry investment.

A new round of UN sanctions to squeeze Iran over its uranium enrichment activities, and likely tougher measures from the US and the European Union, might make it tougher to attract foreign capital. – Reuters