Iran's energy sector review

Iran's parliament has rejected a government supported bill on Nov.20, which was concerned about bartering $1 billion worth of crude oil with the required tar for construction contractors. Notwithstanding that parliament had not ratified oil-tar bartering, according to Mehr News Agency, the Iranian government started illegally bartering crude oil with tar two months ago. According to the aforementioned bill, the government would provide refineries with crude oil free of charge and then they supply bitumen production units free of charge with their raw materials through processing the crude oil. Bitumen producers would deliver their products free of charge to the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development in order to be handed over to contractors as payment of government's debts. The Iranian government that has reportedly been faced with a huge amount of budget deficit, decided to deliver its assets to contractors instead of paying off its debts through using cash. Ira

Iran's vehicle manufacturers are faced with both rising production costs and lacking some details as to how to manufacture cars after the giant international auto companies left Iran because of sanctions aimed to curb the country's disputed nuclear programme. These include Italian Fiat, German General Motors and its French partner PSA Peugeot Citroen, South Korean Hyundai and the Japanese Toyota Motor Corporation, etc. Iran's auto production decreased 66 per cent in September 2012 compared to September 2011, while the country's total auto production dropped by 42 per cent in the first half of current Iranian solar year, started on March 19, compared to the same period in 2011. On the other hand, Iran's major car producer Iran Khodro which had been a partner of France's Peugeot since 1989, had to close some production units and it raised its production prices by 10 per cent last month, while Iran's other major automaker Saypa increased its car pric