Iran's energy sector review

Iran's prospects to increase production of LNG in the near future are doubtful. Low production levels, the stagnation in gas production projects, and the lack of local infrastructure for the construction of a gas liquefaction plant, outweighs the high demand for gas in the country. As LNG production company head, Ali Kheyrandish said in an interview with the Iranian Mehr news agency, $ 450 million are allocated for the implementation of projects for gas liquefaction, and by 2015 the plan is to bring LNG's production to 70 million tons per year. Last month, Qatar, the world leader in LNG production, brought the export of liquefied natural gas to 77 million tons per year, while launching the 6th and 7th phases of the "Katargaz" project. Leaving behind in 2002 Indonesia, ensuring 21 percent of the world's LNG, Qatar by upgrading its plants, produced 21 million tons of liquefied natural gas in 2006 . Over the past four years, Qatar has been able to increase LNG pr...

Iran, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany will hold next talks from 15 to 18 November. There is a great probability that these talks will be held in Vienna. The last round of talks on Iran's nuclear program in a designated format was held in October last year. However, over the last year, the positions of Iran and the West have changed significantly. At the next meeting, the negotiations will chaired by the representative of Germany, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton and Secretary General of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran Saeed Jalili. According to the spokesman of Iranian Foreign Ministry, Ramin Mehmanparast, the topic of the next discussions will be "a package of proposals" by Iran and the "5 +1" countries. According to him, it is possible that discussions will be conducted on a package of proposals by Iran, or the joint aspects of the package of proposals by the both s...

The Russian President's decree, banning the transfer of air defense systems S-300, armored vehicles, combat aircrafts, helicopters and ships to Iran, does not mean that official Moscow carries out strategic cooperation with the West and turns its back on Iran. Medvedev's decree was adopted under the sanctions imposed by the UN Security Council against Iran (resolution 1929). Russia, as a permanent member of the organization, voted for this resolution. After the decree, signed by Russian President Medvedev, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, on a visit to New York to attend the UN General Assembly, said in his interview with media that Medvedev's decree does not mean the end of military cooperation between Russia and Iran. Earlier, a member of the public council of the Russian Ministry of Defence Igor Krochenko said in an interview with RIA Novosti that the cessation of military cooperation between Russia and Iran will cause Moscow damage at $13 billion. This...

The intensive involvement of foreign companies in energy projects of Turkmenistan, the UN Security Council's sanctions against Tehran's nuclear program and as a consequence, the refusal of Europe and the United States from participation in energy projects of Iran, can leave Turkmenistan without a competitor in the field of energy security and transit. More active talks around the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline (TAPI), which completely left the prospect of the Iranian gas pipeline Peace in the shadow, is evidence to it. Development of Turkmenistan's energy projects with the participation of dozens of foreign companies brings this country to far ahead not only in natural gas exports, but also in the production of liquefied gas, in comparison to Iran. In early August, the Turkmen government newspaper Neutral Turkmenistan reported on the achievement of record in the production of liquefied gas - 75,000 tons per day- at the Naip refinery. Moreover, after ...

In recent years, due to yearly increasing demand for natural gas in India the country's activity in search of import sources of this type of fuel has markedly intensified. According to experts forecast, gas consumption in India will increase twice in the coming years. At present, 45.58 billion cubic meters from India's total gas consumption in the amount of 57.32 billion cubic meters, is provided by domestic sources. The remaining amount of gas is ensured by imports of liquefied gas, including by purchasing five billion cubic meters of LNG from Qatar - the largest producer of liquefied gas. However, despite the substitution of the deficient amounts of gas at the expense of LNG, Delhi considers several options for laying pipelines. These projects include: put forward even in the 1990s TAPI ( Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India ), gas pipeline "Peace" (Iran-Pakistan-India), MBI (Myanmar-Bangladesh-India), as well as an underwater gas pipeline from Qatar or Oma...

The IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano once again noted the lack of transparency of Tehran's nuclear program in the report, which is the second on Iran's nuclear program since Yukiya Amano's appointment as head of the IAEA . Despite that the international community has welcomed Iran's consent on uranium exchange with the West, the report will likely affect the decision of the UN Security Council permanent members, discussing new economic sanctions against Iran, moreover, it may accelerate their adoption. Unlike the reports of former Egyptian head of the IAEA Mohamed ElBaradei , reports by his successor reflect deep concern over lack of transparency of Iran's nuclear program. The report states that Tehran avoids cooperation in clarifying the outstanding issues that give reason for concern about a possible military component of its nuclear program. It also tells about Iran's continuation of its plans to enrich uranium despite UN Security Council resolution (2006...

Despite that Turkey and Iran signed an agreement on exchange of 1,200 kg of low-enriched uranium in the territory of Turkey, along with new hopes for resolving problems connected with Iran's nuclear program, there are uncertainties. During his visit to Greece, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that he canceled his visit to Iran. Erdogan described the main reason the unconstructive position of Iran on nuclear fuel. But two days after this statement, he canceled his visit to Azerbaijan and immediately left for Tehran. Brazilian President Lula da Silva, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Erdogan signed an agreement on the exchange of nuclear fuel on May 17. Of course, this step to some extent reduces the pessimism that exists between Iran and the international community, but on the other hand, the exchange of uranium may become a pretext for official Tehran to begin talks on nuclear program with the West. But the uncertainty in Iran's nuclear program still re...