Iran's energy sector review

With the expectation that sanctions on Iran will be suspended later this year, Armenia is eyeing opportunities to boost ties with Iran. One of the projects is the Iran-Armenia railway. Both sides are expecting Chinese financing. China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) has designed the project, while Rasia FZE registered in the United Arab Emirates, awarded $3.2 billion for the 305km railway project, aimed to link the ports of the Persian Gulf and the Black Sea within six years. Armenian Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan will discuss the Iran-Armenia Railway on a visit to China during his two-day visit to Beijing on Sept. 23 Armenian News Agency NewsAm reported Sept.8. The Iranian railway in Jolfa needs to be extended 90 km to the Armenian border city of Meghri. However, construction of the 120 km Armenian side, which needs building 86 bridges, 60 tunnels and 27 stations will be more complicated and costly. And, the Iran-Armenian railway will have to compete

Three foreign companies are reportedly keen to purchase an Iran LNG Company plant to complete it. "A Chinese, an Arabian and a European company are keen to acquire an Iran LNG plant to complete it," a source told Fars News Agency Sept.8, without giving further information. He said that the Iran LNG plant needs "significant investment and it will take two years to complete". This plant’s capacity is projected to be 10.5 million metric tons per year of LNG production, earning the country more than $7 billion annually. Iran signed an agreement a decade ago with Linde AG a decade ago, however this company refused to complete the plant and deliver equipment due to international sanctions. Iran LNG Company (ILC) filed a lawsuit with an international tribunal against EU in March 2014 for its ban on selling LNG plant equipments to Iran. Iran is not producing LNG, yet. Iran started to build the mentioned project, spending $2.5 billion on it but international

By Milad Fashtami Japanese government sources say the country’s Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida plans to visit Tehran in late October to discuss trade ties with Iranian officials. The two countries plan to set up a joint committee to deal with energy and infrastructure development plans, as well as other economic issues. Dalga Khatinoglu, an expert on Iran’s energy sector, told Press TV that Tokyo can play an important role in Iran’s energy sector once the US-engineered sanctions against the country are lifted. “Iran’s both upstream and downstream projects are quite interesting for Japan,” he said. “Iran needs $185 billion investment in upstream oil and gas projects in the next five years. The country also needs to invest $70 billion in its petrochemical projects. Japan has experience, investment might, and progressive technologies in both spheres,” he added. Khatinoglu, who is the head of Iran news service at Trend News Agency, believes that despite the withdrawal of Japan

After several years, Iran resumed as a diesel exporter due to plunging gas oil usage in power plants. According to Energy Ministry's latest weekly report, the diesel consumption in Iran's power plants decreased by 37.2 percent to 1.773 billion liters in 161 days of current fiscal year (March 21 to August 28). Soaring gas deliveries to power plants by 11.4 percent during the mentioned time and 33.6 percent in last fiscal year created the opportunity for Iran to not only stop diesel import but become a diesel exporter. Iran exports 34 million liters of diesel per month, Mehr News Agency reported. Iran’s diesel consumption in 2013 was 105.4 million liters per day, 8.4 percent more than the previous year, while the production level was 97.7 million liters per day. During this year, some 12.1 billion liters (33 million liters per day) of diesel was consumed in power plants, 57 percent more than the previous year due to gas shortage, especially in winter. During a fisc