Iran's energy sector review

As pressures on Iran's former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's allies increase, his 1.5-year longed silence is breaking. In the latest event Iran's Justice Ministry banned a newspaper belongs to Ahmadinejad's allies on Feb.2. However, a day after the court's verdict, Homa daily newspaper released a new version on Feb.3 and a copy of the court's verdict was published on its first page. The online version of Homa hasn't updated on Feb. 4 yet, but banning this media came a day after Ahmadinejad launched a new portal Ahmadinejad.ir on Feb.1. In a headline of Homa's latest version covering Ahmadinejad's statement addressed to his successor Hassan Rouhani, Ahmadinejad asks, "Why have you come to power while you don't dare to stand against the U.S.?" The conflict between Ahmadinejad's close allies and Rouhani's government is one matter and growing confrontation with Iranian hardliners another. On Jan. 21, Ahmadinejad'

With 12 percent growth in gas production levels during 2014 and the same projected volume for 2015, Iran is testing the water to choose its gas export routes based on priorities. The country produces 660 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d) of enriched gas and the volume is expected to increase by 100 mcm/d by March 2016. The managing director of the National Iranian Gas Export Company (NIGEC) Alireza Kameli says the country's priority for gas export is neighboring states in the Persian Gulf, (also known as the Arabian Gulf). Shana quoted Kameli on Feb.3 as saying that for exporting gas, there is need only of a 200-km long under-water pipeline through the Gulf. He named Iraq, Oman, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirate and possibly Kuwait as potential customers. He underlined that Iran started negotiations with some of them. Tehran has signed gas memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Oman to export 30 mcm/a of gas to this country by 2016. Iran has five major cr