Iran's energy sector review

The Iranian parliament will consider the draft budget presented by President Rouhani starting Dec. 14. The New Year begins in Iran on March 20 and the amount of next year's budget is planned to hit 7830 riyals (growth will be 8.4 percent compared to the previous year). The exchange rate of $1 in the draft budget is planned to hit 26,000 riyals. In this case, the budget is planned to hit $301 billion, while the price of oil is set at $ 100 per barrel in the budget. Around 31 percent of oil revenues will be transferred to the National Development Fund, 14.5 percent to the oil company next Iranian calendar year. In other words, $28.8 billion in oil revenues, which will be transferred to the state budget, will hit 54.5 percent of total oil revenues. Thus, if one deducts the share of the National Development Fund and the oil company from the sale of oil, oil revenues are defined in the draft budget in the amount of 750 trillion riyals ($28.8 billion). Around 3.3 million barrels...

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani -- unlike the country's previous president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- submitted the draft budget bill for the next Iranian calendar year (to start on March 21, 2014) to the parliament on time; something which was unprecedented in the past eight years. Rouhani brought up the point in his speech at the legislative chamber. He said that submitting the draft budget bill on time was one of his electoral campaign promises. Ahmadinejad never submitted the drafts on time which used to cause a lot of trouble. In some cases the budget still hadn't been approved a few months after beginning the new year. Iran's next year budget bill has set the ceiling budget at 7830 trillion rials (about $315 billion based on the U.S. official exchange rate of 24,850 rials). The figure shows 8.4 percent growth year on year. The bill has been devised on an average oil price of 100 dollars per barrel and the exchange rate of 26,000 rials for USD. The exchange ra...