Posts

U.S. Sanctions Slow Iran’s Electricity Generation And Trading

Image
By  Dalga Khatinoglu The peak electricity demand in Iran and its neighbor clients Afghanistan and Iraq happens in warm months, but during this period last year Islamic Republic’s exports plunged due to high demand at home. Its electricity imports from Armenia and especially Turkmenistan have been declining dramatically since September. This is possibly due to U.S. banking sanctions, which restrict Iran’s ability to pay its bills. During international sanctions prior to the nuclear deal (2011-2016), Iran was also unable to pay for Turkmen gas and electricity imports, running up $2bn in debts. Iran’s electricity trade during last and the previous fiscal years (GWh/month): ​ Power Generation Iran increased nominal power generation capacity by 2.3% last year; less than half of projected growth, but its actual electricity generation increased by only 1% to 312 TWh, a fifth of projected plan. The growth rate for actual power generation is far below nominal capacity, because
Post a Comment
Read more

Iran Launches Uncompleted Gas Project Citing Suspiciously High Production

Iran’s Oil Ministry officially opened four new phases of the South Pars gas field March 17, citing production and investment figures that don’t add up. The nominal production capacity of the newly opened phases 13, 22, 23 and 24 is 113 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d), but currently they are producing about half of that. The processing units of these phases are also operating at half capacity most probably due to Iran’s technical limitations compounded by sanctions. Phase 13 is projected to produce 56 mcm of natural gas and 75,000 barrels of gas condensate (ultra-light oil) per day, when it becomes fully operational. The capacity of phases 22-24 are together equal to phase 13. The Oil Ministry said all phases will be operating at full capacity within one year. According to Oil Ministry’s statement, some $10 billion were invested in the mentioned four phases, but ministry officials put the figure at $11 billion during the inauguration ceremony, which President Hassan Rouhani
Post a Comment
Read more

Gasoline Is So Cheap In Iran But Who's Paying For It?

Based on the latest report on world gasoline prices, Iran has the cheapest fuel for cars, after Venezuela. Global Petrol Prices has issued a list of gasoline prices  around the world, which shows that one litre of gas in Iran costs just 27 cents, while in the United States, which has moderate prices compared with many other countries, one litre is 83 cents. The average price in the world for 95 octane gasoline is $1.17 per litre, with Norway, Hong Kong and Iceland being above two dollars, as the most expensive places to drive a car. But Venezuela is at the top of the list with gas available at just 1 cent per litre, while it suffers from astronomical inflation, poverty and a general economic breakdown. Iran is also in the grips of serious economic trouble, but as an oil producing nation, it is beholden to public expectations of cheap fuel. Traditionally, oil producing countries offer low-priced gasoline and other liquid fuels domestically, since usually that’s one of the mai
Post a Comment
Read more

Iran’s Power Infrastructure Suffers From Aging And Overuse

Image
Iran increased nominal power generation capacity by 3% to around 78.9 GW during last fiscal year, ended on March 20, the statistics of Energy Ministry’s annual report indicate. The mentioned figure is nominal power generation, but the actual capacity stood at below 68.5 GW, which demonstrate that the country’s power plants suffer seriously from aging and exhaustion. During the last year Iran fulfilled only a half of the power generation growth plan, especially its renewable power projects are far behalf of plan. Iran needs at least 5 percent growth annually to avoid power outage in summers, when the electricity demand soars. The country added only 100MW to renewables last year, while it had planned to install 690 MW. Currently the renewables account for less than 0.5 percent of Iran’s total power generation capacity. Iran has planned to increase renewables by 5GW during 2016-2021, but currently the volume stands at 364MW in total and most of that was installed before 2016.
Post a Comment
Read more

Iran’s Petrochemicals Progress Despite Idle Capacity

Image
Iran’s petrochemical exports increased both in value and volume during the last Iranian fiscal year ending March 20, but the plants continue working with significant idle capacity, though the gap between nominal capacity and actual production has been narrowing. The National Petrochemical Company (NPC) released its annual report on April 22, saying that export of petrochemical products increased by about 10 percent in volume and 26 percent in value during last fiscal year. The significant difference between value and volume growth is due to rising oil and petrochemical prices. A 25 percent rise in world oil prices pushed petrochemical prices higher. The overall production also increased by 6 percent to 53.629 million metric tons (mt) last year. However, the figure is 2 million mt less than the projected plan for the year. On the other hand, about 16 percent of petrochemical production capacity remained idle. Source: NPC's Annual Report Unit:Million Metric Tons Until
Post a Comment
Read more

Iran Plans To Drastically Raise Fuel Prices, With Risk Of Higher Inflation

Image
The Iranian government has proposed to increase the gasoline price by 50% to 15,000 rials per liter (around 43 US cents or $1.62 per US gallon) in the budget bill for next fiscal year, starting on March 21. The price of diesel is also set to increase by 33% to 4,000 rials per liter, or 10 cents per liter or 38 cents per gallon. According to a report published on December 19, on the official government website, the rise in fuel prices would add $4.8 billion to the government’s revenues next year to help it invest in job creation, to reduce Iran’s high unemployment rate. The report also says raising fuel prices to a more realistic level will reduce gasoline and diesel smuggling to neighboring countries, where the prices are much higher. The fuel price hike will come into force once the parliament and the Guardian Council approve it. Fuel prices, like many other necessities, have been heavily subsidized in the Islamic Republic’s closed and controlled economy. Also, hundreds of
Post a Comment
Read more

Results of Iran’s major oil projects in July

Image
Iran has prioritized seven major oil fields for development - in West Karoon Block and South Pars gas field’s oil layer. During the first seven months of 2017, Iran launched Azar field and South Pars’ oil layer, while the statistics, prepared by Iran’s Oil Ministry and seen by Trend, indicate, that the other five fields, placed in West Kroob Block were also in development. Currently, Iran produces 20-25 thousand barrels per day from the oil layer of South Pars, while the production level at Azar field reached 15,000 b/d. Iran plans to double the oil output of South Pars and increase the Azar’s output to 65,000 b/d. Azar field, whith 2.5 billion barrels of in-situ oil reserves, and 16 percent recovery rate has been completed by 69.92 percent in July, compared to 68.52 percent in June. One of the major projects in Iran’s upstream oil sector includes the first phase of five fields (West Karoon Block) in Iranian western regions with 66.7 billion barrels of in-situ oil reserves, jo
Post a Comment
Read more