Iran's energy sector review

Latest official reports show that Iran consumed 157.5 billon cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas during the last 11 months in the housing, industrial and power plants sectors, indicating a 17.16 bcm increase year-to-year. The figures for 1.5 months and 10 months of the current fiscal year were about 148.5 bcm and 138 bcm. Iran's fiscal year starts on March 21, based on a solar calendar, coinciding with the beginning of spring. Accordingly, the monthly gas consumption during 10 months was 451 million cubic meters per day, (mcm/d) while this figure for first half of 11th month reached 479 mcm/d. This is while the gas consumption during 24 hours of Feb.22 reached 621 mcm/d. If the average daily consumption continues at yesterday's pace, it's expected that the country's gas consumption will reach 173.6 bcm per annum, about 17.4 bcm more than the previous year. Naser Ebrahimi, Director of Gas Distribution Department of National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) told Shana ...

While Iran's CBI says the amount of bad loans stand at 1000 trillion rials, spokesman of Judiciary System put the figure two times more than CBI's statistics. Each USD is sold at 35,000 rials in the open market, while the official rate of dollar against rial is 26,500 rials, then the amount of bad loan based on free exchange markets is about $51 billion and based of official rate is $75.5 billion. The amount of bad loans reached about $51 billion in Iran, while the loan-to-deposit ratio in the country's banks on average is in the critical stage. Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, the Spokesperson for the Iranian Judiciary announced Feb.19 that only half of debtors requested extending the deadline to pay off their debts. The figure indicates above 30 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...

Iran's power sector consumes about 400 million barrels of oil equivalent per year, sharing one fourth of total primary energy usage in the country. The latest weekly statistics, released on Energy Ministry's official website which covers statistics of 10.5 months of current fiscal year, started on March 21, indicate huge changes in the power sector, but not fundamentally. According to the report, Iran consumed about 43.47 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas as well as 16.627 billion liters of liquid fuels for electricity generation during a 10.5-month period to produce 56,850 Megawatt power. Power sector Current year (10.5 months) Y/Y change Last year (12 months) Two year ago (12 months) Gas consumption (bcm) 43.47 34.4% 36 38.1 Diesel consumption (billion liters) 7.627 -24.5% 12.1 7.67 Fuel oil consumption (billion liters) 9 -33.5% 15.2 14.46 Actual power generation (GW) 56.856 54.879 54.879 54.043 The statistics...

Iran says it bunkered millions of metric tons of liquid fuel to ships sailing through the Gulf in the first ten months of the current Iranian fiscal year. The manager of the commercial division at National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company (NIOPDC) Mohammad Reza Mazloumi says that 3 million metric tons of fuel oil (worth $1.35 billion, a 30 percent increase), 107,000 metric tons of gas oil (worth $96 million, a 30 percent increase) were supplied to ships in the 10-month period (March 21, 2014 – January 20, 2015). Iran has a target to bunker 4 million metric tons of fuel oil and gas oil during the current fiscal year. On the other hand, according to the latest Ports Report, Iran has 9.17 million metric tons and 1.38 million metric tons of oil products export and import respectively during this 10-month period. Noshahr, Neka, Fereidoon Kenar and Amirabad ports are located on the Caspian Sea; therefore Iran imported 132,000 metric tons from Caspian littoral countries ...

Latest official reports indicate that Iran consumed 148.5 billon cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas during last 10.5 months in housing, industrial and power plants sectors, indicates a 15 bcm increase year-to-year. The figure for ten months of the current fiscal year was about 138 bcm. Iran's fiscal year starts on March 21, based on solar calendar, contemporary with the beginning of spring. Naser Ebrahimi, Director of Gas Distribution Department of National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) told IRNA that the country's gas consumption (excluding the re-ejected gas to oil fields, flaring, etc) reached 148.406 bcm during the 322 days of the current fiscal year (10.5 months). He announced earlier on Jan.23 that the country's gas consumption stood above 138 bcm during last ten months (306 days), without mentioning an exact volume. Therefore, Iran's gas usage during the 16 days (322 days minus 306 days) 10 to 10.5 bcm, or around 625 to 656 mcm/d. Gas consumption ...

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...