Iran continues to play with oil figures

Mohammad Ali Khatibi, Iran's governor for OPEC, who serves as the National Iranian Oil Company’s director for international affairs, says that despite the international sanctions, exports of crude oil, gas condensates, and oil products are above the amounts which have been targeted by the national budget law.

On Monday, he told Fars News Agency that crude oil and gas condensate exports are close to the figures which have been stipulated in the current year’s national budget law.

"If we add exports of oil products to exports of crude oil and gas condensates, the figure will be higher than the budget law’s figure," he said.

Although he did not provide any specific figure about crude oil exports, but the current year’s budget law has set the target of exporting 1.3 million barrels per day.

It should be mentioned that exports of gas condensates and oil products (diesel fuel, furnace oil, etc) are not mentioned in the budget law. Such products are sold by private or government companies and are taken into account separately outside of budget law calculations.

According to the Iranian Customs Administration, Iran exported $2.646 billion worth of gas condensates in the first four months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-July 22). Considering $110 per barrel of gas condensate price on the international market, Iran has exported about 200,000 barrels of gas condensates per day.

Iranian Customs Administration’s report also shows that exports of gas condensates fell from $12 billion in the year which ended in March 2012 to $11 billion last solar year. The exports declined by 15 percent in the first four months of the current solar year compared to the same period in the previous year.

On the other hand, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has said that Iran exported one million barrels of crude oil in the first five months of the current year.

Then Iran exported some 1.2 million barrels of crude oil plus gas condensates. Taking exports of oil products into account, the total exports will amount to 1.3 million barrels per day, which was mentioned by Khatibi. This figure adds up to figures which are announced by accredited international organizations.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), Iran exported 1.5 million barrels of crude oil and gas condensates in 2012, which was one million barrels less than the figure in 2011.

In other words, Iran’s crude oil exports amounted to 1.2 million barrels per day in 2012.

It can be concluded that Iran’s crude oil exports amount to one million barrels per day. This is while, OPEC’s report which was published on August 1 compiled based on data provided by Iran (based on direct communication), said that Iran exported some 2.1 million barrels of crude oil and gas condensates in 2012.

In OPEC monthly, which was published on August 10, Iran also put its July crude oil output at 3.721 million barrels. Meanwhile, OPEC has estimated -  based on secondary sources - that the figure was 2.684 million barrels.

Iran’s total crude oil refining capacity is about 1.7 million barrels per day. It means that the domestic consumption volume is about 2 million barrels less than the total production.


The figures provided by Iran to OPEC mean that Iran is producing one million barrels per day more than its domestic consumption and exports. Considering the lack of storage capacity in the country, then storing crude oil surplus is impossible for more than one month.

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