Iran's energy sector review

Iran inaugurated a number of gasoline and gas oil production units in Shazand, Abadan, Tehran, Lavan, and Isfahan refineries the current year, which resulted in a slight boost in the country's total output capacity. The quality of the produced gasoline was also improved. However, the country's oil products' output didn't change much in 2013 in general. Based on OPEC's annual report, Iran's refining capacity stood at 1.68 million barrels per day in 2012, around 5.1 percent less than its preceding year. Iran daily produced around 262 million liters of gasoline, gas oil, kerosene, and fuel oil in the previous year. The country mainly exported fuel oil in the current year. It also exported some amounts of kerosene and naphtha. Reuters last month quoted an Iranian oil official as saying that the country exported 600,000 barrels of oil per month (21.3 million liters per day) in the first three quarters of the current year. Former Deputy Oil Minister Alireza Zeyqhami a

Iran's flared gas level remains high, despite an order from the country's top leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei's order to put out flares in Dec. 2010 during his visit to the South Pars gas field. According to the latest official statistics, Iran's total flared gas amount has remained unchanged since 2011 at about 40 million cubic meters per day. An October 2013 report, produced under the World Bank Global Gas Flaring Reduction Partnership (GGFR) put Iran in third place among nations in terms of flaring gas for 2011. New statistics are unavailable, but comparing GGFR's figures with Iran's latest statistics published in September indicates there has been no progress. GGFR says 360 million tons of carbon dioxide was released into the atmosphere totally by burning 140 bcm of flared gas in 2011. The deputy head of Iran Energy Efficiency Organization, Abdolreza Assadi said in September 2013 that Iran has 40 projects to cut 40 mcm of gas flaring and is attempting to brin

With 18 percent and 9.4 percent of the world's total proven gas and oil resources respectively, Iran ranks as the largest in gas and fourth in oil reserve holdings among all nations. But inefficient projects, huge domestic consumption and lack of technology and finance as well as imposed sanctions aimed at curbing its disputed nuclear program have diminished Iran's role in energy markets. According to the latest estimates released by the International Energy Agency on Dec.11, Iran's November total crude oil and gas condensate export was 850 thousand barrels per day. The figure was 2.5 mbpd in 2011. Iran's oil output decreased from 3.628 mbpd in 2011 to 2.7 mbpd, but there is not any concrete information on Iran's current oil production capacity. Iran has shut down some oil fields due to a decline in oil exports, while the domestic refining capacity decreased during 2012 to 1.68 last years. On the other hand, most of Iran's active fields are in their sec

Iran will face daily 200 million cubic meters of gas shortage due to a harsh winter season, the deputy of oil minister says, but how can it be saved? Iran -the biggest gas holder in the world- extracted about 220 bcm of gross gas during last year, of which 160.5 bcm was refined, according BP's annual report, published on mid-January. The country's gas consumption was 156 bcm, or 427.4 mcmpd. Although, Iran's gas output had increased by 214 percent during the decade to 2012 and reached 160.5 bcm, the consumption increased to 156 bcm. During Ex-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's time in office, due to withdrawal of western companies from Iran's oil and gas sector, especially from South Pars - the gigantic gas field with 33 tcm of proved reserves shared between Iran and Qatar- as well as the lack of domestic technology and not enough finance, new phases of South Pars have not come on stream since 2008. South Pars shares 27 percent of Iran's total gas reserv

The Iranian parliament will consider the draft budget presented by President Rouhani starting Dec. 14. The New Year begins in Iran on March 20 and the amount of next year's budget is planned to hit 7830 riyals (growth will be 8.4 percent compared to the previous year). The exchange rate of $1 in the draft budget is planned to hit 26,000 riyals. In this case, the budget is planned to hit $301 billion, while the price of oil is set at $ 100 per barrel in the budget. Around 31 percent of oil revenues will be transferred to the National Development Fund, 14.5 percent to the oil company next Iranian calendar year. In other words, $28.8 billion in oil revenues, which will be transferred to the state budget, will hit 54.5 percent of total oil revenues. Thus, if one deducts the share of the National Development Fund and the oil company from the sale of oil, oil revenues are defined in the draft budget in the amount of 750 trillion riyals ($28.8 billion). Around 3.3 million barrels

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani -- unlike the country's previous president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- submitted the draft budget bill for the next Iranian calendar year (to start on March 21, 2014) to the parliament on time; something which was unprecedented in the past eight years. Rouhani brought up the point in his speech at the legislative chamber. He said that submitting the draft budget bill on time was one of his electoral campaign promises. Ahmadinejad never submitted the drafts on time which used to cause a lot of trouble. In some cases the budget still hadn't been approved a few months after beginning the new year. Iran's next year budget bill has set the ceiling budget at 7830 trillion rials (about $315 billion based on the U.S. official exchange rate of 24,850 rials). The figure shows 8.4 percent growth year on year. The bill has been devised on an average oil price of 100 dollars per barrel and the exchange rate of 26,000 rials for USD. The exchange ra

After the "Geneva agreement" on Iran's nuclear program, speculations about reviving Iran's halved crude oil export to international markets have risen. The Middle East country's crude oil export decreased from 2.2 million barrels per day to below one mbpd since 2011, while condensate export dropped by 34 percent to about 200 tbpd during the mentioned period. The latest report published by Iran's Custom Administration says the country's condensate export soared to 345 tmbd during last Iranian calendar month (Oct.21 to Nov.22), even more than pre-sanctions' level, but what about crude oil? First of all, let's review what mechanisms were used by Iran toward the West's sanctions, aimed at chocking up the country's oil exports. Iran was unable to boost refinery capacity, so it was forced to start closing down some oil wells as well as storing crude oil in tankers. Reportedly, Iran holds 25 to 30 million barrels of unsold oil storage in tankers,

The latest detailed monthly report of Iranian Customs Administration, published on Dec.1 says the country's gas condensate export reached 5,582 thousand tons during the eight months of Iranian calendar year, which began on March 20. Based on the last month's report, Iran 's total condensate export stood at 4,433 thousand tons (first seven months), or about 190,000 barrels per day. Then, according the statistics of 7-month and 8-month periods, Iran exported about 1,149 thousand tons of condensates during the 8-th month (October 23 - November 22)- which equals to 345,000 barrels per day, and indicates approximately 48 percent increase compared to average condensate exports during first seven months of Iranian year. Iran 's total condensate export amount for last solar year was 9,630 thousand tons, which indicates 15.36 percent drop compared to the previous year. Before Iran had sanctions imposed on it, the country's condensate export was about 300,000 barrel

Romeo, the famed lover in William Shakespeare's masterpiece play refers specifically to his lack of good fortune in being forced to kill Juliet's cousin, saying " I'm Fortune's fool ". This is Romeo's judgement, others have their own judgements. Coming to Iran's economy with poor performance, this is a disaster that everyone sees, yet people offer various versions of why it happened - we are talking about Iran's disastrous situation with economy. Nothing matters why and how. Whether sanctions affected Iran's economy more, or mismanagement. This is the tale of that girl who was narrating to her boyfriend -in the film of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, directed by Chan-wook Park- about one who had imagined being two heads on her body and one day shot her head. Reaching to this fragment, the boy asked exited with a special sorrow: Which head? Right or left? No matter really, the result is known. The current statistics indicate that Iran e