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VIENNA — A large-scale withdrawal from Iran by international companies as part of economic sanctions represent an "opportunity" for domestic companies, the Islamic republic's oil minister said Thursday.

"Iran is not a poor country," Masoud Mir Kazemi told reporters at a meeting of OPEC oil ministers in Vienna.

At the meeting, the oil cartel's 12 member states elected Iran as its new president for next year, taking over from Ecuador.

It will be the first time in 36 years that Iran has held the 12-month presidency of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

"The refraining of Western companies was an opportunity for our own banks and companies to find themselves. Absorbing investment is not a problem," the minister said.

At the end of September, French giant Total, Anglo-Dutch group Shell, Norway's Statoil and Italy's Eni all said they were pulling out of Iran as part of wide-ranging international sanctions to pressure the Islamic republic to halt its controversial nuclear programme.