Iran's energy sector review

The latest announcement by a high-ranking Iranian Oil Minister's official indicates that the country's primary energy consumption has increased by 17.9 percent since March 2012. The head the National Iranian Gas Co. Hamid Reza Araqi said on Dec.29 that the country's gas consumption is about 4 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) per day, shares about 75 percent of the country's total primary energy consumption, Shana repoeted. Then the total primary energy consumption in Iran is currently about 5.33 million BOE. According the latest annual report of Iran Energy Efficiency Organization, released early 2014 and covers the statistics of a fiscal year to March 2012, Iran's energy consumption was 4.38 million BOE per day. Iran's fiscal year starts on March 21. Then with comparing the figures mentioned above, gas consumption increased by 710,000 BOE per day. Below is Iran's fossil energy carriers consumption per day according to the data derive

Iranian government undertakes about $80 billion energy subsidy annually, more than the country's total exports. However, the figures on Iran next fiscal year's budget, which will begin on March 2015, indicate almost no change in energy prices compared to the current level. The Iranian government has increased the energy carriers prices twice since 2010 based on implementation of a Subsidy Reform plan, but cheap energy still motivates people to consume more energy. Energy carrier USD current exchange rate: 35,400 rials Global prices (NYMEX-2014/2015) Consumption Per day A cm of gas 2.8 cent 11 to 16 cent 500 to 520 mcm A liter of gasoline 28.6 cent 57 to 75 cent 67 million liter A liter of LPG 6.26 cent 21 to 37 cent 5,500 tons A liter of diesel 13.43 cent 67 to 78 cent 100 to 105 million liters A liter of Kerosene 4.47 cent 48 to 64 cent 8 million liters A cm of CNG 16.53 cent 27 cent 18 mcm Electricity

OPEC oil basket price slipped below $58/barrel on Dec.15, losing 46 percent of its value since mid-June. According to the OPEC's official website, the cartel's oil basket was sold at $57.92 on Monday, reaching the lowest since five years ago. With regarding the oil decline pace during last 6 months, a half of dropping oil price falls on a period from mid-June to mid-Nov, while another half falls on mid-Nov to mid-Dec. On the other word, the drop of oil price in the international markets was more accelerating during last month than the previous months. The huge and speedy drop of oil price, actually implies that the markets is going to be out of control, but who would win or lose from the current situation. Of course, in case the producers continue to keep oil production growth in the current pace in mid-term, it seems the global economy would face problems. It's expected that oil price collapse in current level is worth 1.3 trillion US dollar of stimulus for

Although Iran boosted exporting its oil products, but a look at the country's oil production revenues during the last several months indicate a huge drop in prices. Iran's most valuable exported oil products include propane, butane, tar, fuel oil as well as some petrochemical products. Iran's heavy oil price has fallen from about $110 in mid-June to below $68 currently. The country exported about 1.2 to 1.25 million barrels of crude oil and condensate per day in average during ten months of 2014. This figure during 2011 and 2013 was about 2.5 million and 1.07 million barrels per day. Iran's petroleum export revenues ($ billion) based on the Central Bank of Iran's statistics Iran's Custom Administration's latest monthly report, released on Dec.5 indicates that the country's oil product exports have soared since March 21, when Iran's current fiscal year started, but their price has dropped significantly during the last several months as

Compressed Natural Gas sharing 5 percent of the country's gas consumption and 25 percent of the National Iranian Gas Company's revenues has faced a recession during the last few years in Iran. Amir Vakilzadeh, the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company's director for CNG plans told the Oil Ministry's information website Shana on December 2 that some 2,249 CNG stations in the country are active and the government has plans to encourage the private sector to get involved in CNG projects. The number of CNG stations during last two years increased by 50 percent in Iran, while the consumption rate has not changed. Iranian cars consumes about 20 million cubic meters of CNG per day, equals usage of daily 20 million liters of gasoline. According to NIORDC's annual statistics, Iran's CNG consumption in the fiscal year, corresponding to 2012 was 19 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d), so there hasn’t been any significant increase in Iran's

Iran's national currency has lost about 9 percent of its value versus the US dollar during the last week. Today, each US dollar is sold at 35,200 rials in the Iran's open foreign currencies market, while the official USD rate offered by the Central Bank of Iran is about 26,846. Iranian government calculates the state foreign trade based on official USD rate, including oil revenues, non-oil export and imports. However, most of private traders have no choice, but to purchase expensive US dollar from open markets. During ex-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's second term, Iran's rial lost its value by about four times. Each USD was sold at 9,830 rials in 2009, but the figure reached 36, 000 in mid-2013, when Ahmadinejad was by Hassan Rouhani. During last 18 moths of Rouhani's presidency, the USD price in Iran's open markets was almost stable around 31,000 to 32,000 rials, but during last week, the rial lost its value against dollar significantly. What h

Dropping GDP from $550 billion in 2009 to $367 billion in 2013, rising inflation rate from 12.4 percent in 2010 to 32.6 percent in mid-2013, rising liquidity by 6.5 time during Ex-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's 8-year presidency to mid-2013, dropping the national currency value by 3.5 times from 2011 to mid-2013, etc. These are only the "plot" of the tragedy, not the whole story of Iran 's economy during Ahmadinejad's presidency. But what has been changed during the last year and a half of Hassad Rouhani’s presidency? During his term in office, the previous president, Ahmadinejad not only called the imposed international sanctions on Iran's nuclear program "a worthless piece of paper", but his administration released economic statistics that were "mixed, delayed and fake" according to the new administration and economic experts' views. A glance at Iran 's economy during Hassan Rouhani's presidency, starting in mid

Sitting on the world’s biggest natural gas reserves, the Iranian government requested last week from Turkmenistan to increase gas delivery to Iran by 6 million cubic meters per day (mcmpd) to 30 mcmpd to avoid gas shortage in upcoming winter. It's while, the Iran's Oil Ministry stated that it is preparing the gas export to Iraq, Oman and have planned delivering gas to Europe Union. Currently, Iran exports about 8.5 bcm of gas to Turkey and imports approximately the same volume the Turkmen gas. Iran has several giant upstream projects, including the development of the worlds biggest gas field, South Pars, increasing production of associated gas and cutting a 20-mcm volume of flared gas. Iran's associated gas production level increased by 27 mcmpd and the natural gas output of South pars rose by 25 mcmpd during 2014, but the consumption level increased by 100 mcm during the past weeks compared to the last year's same period. Majid Boujarzadeh, a spokesman w