Iran's energy sector review

Iran's oil ministry says the Memorandum of Understandings signed by joint Iran-Russian and Iran-Ukrainian companies have been suspended. During Ex-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency, the Iran Oil Ministry announced in late 2011 that a contract with "Russian Tatneft" to develop the Zagheh heavy oilfield, as well as three MoUs with a Ukrainian company to develop the Kuhmund, Kaki and Bushkan oil fields were signed. Now, Abdolreza Haji-Hosseinnejad, an official with the National Iranian Oil Company, said on May 13 that the sealed MoUs with mentioned companies have been halted. Tatneft Iranian former Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said that Russia's OAO Tatarstan Tatneft (TATN) signed a $1 billion worth contract to develop Zagheh oil field during the visit of Tearstain's President Rustam Minnikhanov to Tehran on December 18, 2011. A day after that Tatneft denied signing any contract with Iran. A couple of days later, Iran's ISNA news agency

The amount of bad loans reached about $40 billion in Iran, while the loan-to-deposit ratio in the country's banks on average is in the critical stage. According to the latest report, published by Fars News Agency on May 11, bad loans have mounted to 1000 trillion rials, and indicate above a 14 times increase compared to nine years ago when ex-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took power. The Central Bank of Iran has not published any updated statistics, but according to mid-2013 data released by the CBI, the total amount of bank deposits were $ 218 billion (based on official exchange rate in Iran then at 25,000 rials to the USD), while the total loans amounted at $206 billion. Then the loan-to-deposit ratio was about 1.058. The bad loan amount during last ten years The main increase in bad loans occurred between 2010, mid-2014, a period when Iran's national currency dropped in value by 300 percent. Reasons According to the report published by Fars News Agency c