Iran's energy sector review

As the Iranian government has accelerated development of several upstream gas projects to increase the output by 100 million cubic meters per day by winter, the consumption rate broke a new record in autumn, increasing by 100 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d) on November 9th compared to the same day in last year. The Middle Eastern country’s gas consumption reached 520 mcm/d on Nov.9, which of 362 mcm/d was consumed in the housing sector, according to the National Iranian Gas Company’s (NIGC) spokesman Majid Boujarzadeh, speaking to  Shana  News Agency on November 10th. The report says that about 86 mcm/d and 70 mcm/d of gas were delivered to big industrial sectors and power plants respectively. The figures indicate that Iran has decreased gas delivery to power plants significantly compared to the last months due to a huge increase in the gas consumption of housing sector. Iran sits on 33.6 trillion cubic meters of natural gas reserves; ranks the first in t...

Despite 600 kilometers of joint border, trade between Iran and Azerbaijan stood at $210 million in 2013. Both Iran and Azerbaijan are dissatisfied with the current volume of trade. Following to the visit of Azerbaijani president to Tehran in early spring, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is scheduled to travel to Baku on November 12, aiming to sign 10 MOUs with Azerbaijan, including energy MOUs. After eight years of political and security struggles between Iran and Azerbaijan, which culminated during the second term of Iranian former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the bilateral ties have becoming ameliorated at a brisk pace after President Hassan Rouhani took power in Iran in August 2013. Over the past year, several senior Azerbaijani officials have visited Iran and several Iranian officials as well as trade and economic delegations have come to Azerbaijan. The two countries signed an MOU in October to cooperate in oil exploration in the Caspian Sea. Prospect of Iran-Azerb...