Companies that invest in Iran’s energy sector stand to lose billions in investments from pension funds if a divestment call from the City Council is heeded.

A resolution scheduled to be introduced to the council tomorrow calls for the city and state pension fund boards to divest from companies that invest in Iran’s energy sector.

“The Iranian government has been complicit in putting American servicemen and women in harm’s way in Iraq. President Ahmadinejad leads a rogue government with a clear history of being anti-American and anti-Israeli in their words and deeds,” the sponsor of the resolution, Minority Leader James Oddo, said in a statement.

Close to $101 billion of the city and state pension funds’ $250 billion in holdings is invested directly or indirectly in Iran, a supporter of the resolution, Majority Leader Joel Rivera, has said, adding that the divestment push is a matter of national security, because according to the U.S. State Department Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism.

In July, Comptroller William Thompson Jr. sent letters to eight companies that have business ties to Iran, asking them to describe the measures they have in place to mitigate “the significant risks that could negatively impact the company’s stock price and reputation.”

In a letter to a Spanish oil company, Respol YPF SA, Mr. Thompson wrote that the company’s involvement in Iran’s oil and natural gas sector “poses significant risks to the company, and by extension, to our investments and that of other share-owners of the company.” The state comptroller, Thomas DiNapoli, also signed the letter, along with officials from the Illinois State Board of Investment, the North Carolina Retirement Systems, and the California Public Employees’ Retirement Systems.

Mr. Thompson’s office did not return a call seeking comment on the council resolution.