Iran's energy sector review

The Integration Committee of the Iranian parliament (Majlis) has approved some details of Ahmadinejad government's proposed current year budget bill. The ratification of the months -delayed submitted budget bill to the Iranian parliament has been under discussion while it passed a month from the beginning the Iran's new solar year (started on March 20). The Integration Committee approved a 4.040 million daily oil output and set a price of $85 per a barrel in the budget yesterday. Setting $85 per a barrel in budget bill is logical, but there are serious doubts on Iran's ability to produce above four million barrels oil per day. According to OPEC statistics, Iran's oil output dropped to 3.424 mbpd in March 2012, indicating a decrease of 631, 000 barrels compared to 2008. Most of Iran's oil fields are on their second half life and according to official statements, the production level from existing producing oil wells decreases by 300,000 barrels annually. On the other...

To resolve its concerns on Iran's nuclear programme the West has to separate technical nuclear issues from other political-security subjects, Trend Agency's Iran Service Department Chief Dalga Khatinoglu told Mehr news Agency during an interview on Tuesday. The success of the Istanbul talks held between Iran and the permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (P5+1) could mean the nuclear issue is resolvable in case if the sides can focus on Iran's nuclear activities, without politicizing them, Khatinoglu said. In a rare case, both the West and Iran recognized nuclear talks over Iran's nuclear program, that had been suspended for 15 months because of lacking mutual understanding between the parties, as "positive". The talks were held on April 14 in Istanbul. According to Khatinoglu's pointview, after Iran's complete cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), lifting some of the sanctions against Iran would be reasonab...

Defining a permanent and upgradeable nuclear talks' framework between Iran and the West countries may take a long time, but despite the complicacy of issue, achieving "constructive understanding and positive atmosphere in negotiations" called so both by Iran and P5+1 is a significant opportunity - maybe a pathway to lead to a big deal - for resolving Iran's disputed nuclear program. What happened during yesterday talks between Iran and six major powers headed by Iranian Supreme Security Council Secretary Saeed Jalili and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton? Ahston recognized Iran's right to peaceful nuclear activities in framework of Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and Iran promised to keep talks with P5+1 seriously to eliminate the concerns over alleged military dimension of its nuclear program. It would take a lot of time to define upgradeable framework as I said, but as a first step Iran can suspend enriching 20-percent uranium for a while in exchan...