Iran's energy sector review

From the beginning of 2012, even before the European Union and the United States enforced sanctions on Iran's oil sector, the country was forced to halt production at some of its oilfields due to the gradually reduction in the EU's oil imports from Tehran. Europe accounted for 18 per cent of Iran's total oil exports in 2011. Tehran's refining capacity has remained the same since 2012, however, by enforcing sanctions on Iran's oil exports in July 2012, Asian customers were also forced to reduce their oil purchases from Iran step by step. The United States every six month has exempted some countries from the sanctions due to their continuous effort to cut their oil imports from Iran. This factor has forced Iran to accelerate shutting down oil wells at some of its fields. But another factor that has been mainly ignored is the fact that the country faces with natural production decline because about the 80 per cent of Iran's active oil fields are in their second ha

The latest report from Iran indicates doubling the petrochemical products export over the past month. A report from the Iran Custom Administration shows a growth of about 214 percent, surpassing pre-sanctions levels. There is not any concrete evidence to show the reason, but the Custom Administration's report last month indicates a twofold increase of condensate export in past two months of Iranian calendar year, compared to average of monthly condensate export during the year, surpassing pre-sanctions level as well. The condensate and petrochemical products exports are vital for Iran because they share about a half of the country's total non-oil exports. Nine months/ $bln Eight months/$bln Seven months/$bln 3Qs of last year/$bln Condensate export 6.363 4.944 3.926 7.558 Petrochemicals exports 8.116 6.405 5.592 8.308 Total non-oil exports 29.241 24.605 21.162 31.964 * The dates are based on Iranian calendar year, which started