Iran's energy sector review

After four rounds of negotiations between Iran and P5+1 in Turkey and Baghdad since April, the hopes of resolving concerns over Iran's disputed nuclear programme seems be paled as Iran rejected both allowing the International Atomic Energy Agency's inspectors to visit the alleged nuclear blast chamber at Parchin military complex and halting 20 per cent uranium enrichment. The sides are preparing to launch a new round of talks in mod-June in Russia. What's been going? Maybe the wrong addresses published by outlets such as the U.S. readiness to recognise Iran's uranium enrichment rights for a 3.5 per cent level, or IAEA chief Yukia Amano's visit to Tehran that be taken as an Iranian government's compromise against the West to clarify its nuclear activities. The sanctions imposed by UNSC, EU and the U.S. are law and eliminating them while Iran puts the first precondition halting the sanctions, is impossible in the short term. Eliminating sanctions over...

Tehran's two-day negotiation with the International Atomic Energy Agency held at the office of the Iran envoy to IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh at least has not failed, but what was achieved? Soltanieh said that the nuclear talks were "constructive", while IAEA deputy director general and head of the Department of Safeguards, Herman Nackaerts, who had twice banned visits in January to the Iranian Parchin Military Base told reporters that "the two sides will meet again in Vienna on May 21 for more talks". Expanding the talks time shows that Iran-IAEA didn't achieved any framework method to cooperate on some disputed issues including defining a means to allow Agency inspectors to visit an iron container at Parchin, which is alleged to be aiding Iran to make high explosive tests and related to nuclear weapon production. This is quite a complicated issue, with regard to the fact that the six major powers and IAEA called on Iran to seriously consider all...

My latest interview with Germany's Deutsche Welle international broadcaster Iran has stated about launching the oil and gas extraction operations in Iran's sector of the Caspian Sea. Iran's oil minister Rostam Qasemi said earlier that the first "oil" torch will be sparked on the "Amir Kabir" platform (Alborz). However, in an interview with the German broadcasting company Deutsche Welle (DW), the experts differed in opinions on Iran's oil and gas extraction opportunities in the Caspian Sea. While saying that the "Alborz" platform is semi-submersible, Trend Persian news service head Dalga Khatinoglu emphasized that these platforms are used in field exploration. He said that stationary platforms are required for oil and gas extraction. It is surprising that Iran extracts oil or gas through this platform. Qasemi said that a field with gas reserves amounting to 50 trillion cubic feet (more than 1.4 trillion cubic meters) and ...

The China National Offshore Oil Corp (SINOC) has announced readiness to restart working on development of Iran's North Pars gas field five years after Iran threatened to cancel the contract due to the Chinese company's repeated delays, the ISNA News Agency said in a report on Monday. SINOC signed a $16 billion contract in 2007 to develop both the upstream and downstream sections of the North Pars gas field, the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA) reports. SINOC then took no action to start developing North Pars. Discovered in 1965, the North Pars gas field is 120 kilometers east of the port city of Bushehr in the Persian Gulf. After waiting for five years, Iran announced that SINOC's contract would be canceled. Now SINOC said that it wants to develop the field. Pars Oil and Gas Company's managing director Mousa Souri says that Iran's Oil Ministry agrees that a contract will be signed. Meanwhile the fate of Phase 11 of Iran's joint South Par...

Unveiling the final result of Iranian parliamentary election indicates apparently victory of Ahmadinejad's rivals, but it's only an apparent feature, not more. According to the results, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's camp " United Front of Conservatives ", whose candidates oppose president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, won 120 seats, while Ahmadinejad's allies under the flag of "Front of stability of the Islamic Revolution" coalition won only 75 seats. However, regarding the fact that some of the candidates belong to both coalitions, then, there are some Ahmadinejad's allies in United Front of Conservatives' list. Also, about 40 independent candidates joined the parliament, whom the United Front of Conservatives refused to add their names to this coalition's list before and they are likely to make coalition with Ahmadinejad's allies. Front of stability of the Islamic Revolution can attract some new indepe...

The Integration Committee of the Iranian parliament (Majlis) has approved some details of Ahmadinejad government's proposed current year budget bill. The ratification of the months -delayed submitted budget bill to the Iranian parliament has been under discussion while it passed a month from the beginning the Iran's new solar year (started on March 20). The Integration Committee approved a 4.040 million daily oil output and set a price of $85 per a barrel in the budget yesterday. Setting $85 per a barrel in budget bill is logical, but there are serious doubts on Iran's ability to produce above four million barrels oil per day. According to OPEC statistics, Iran's oil output dropped to 3.424 mbpd in March 2012, indicating a decrease of 631, 000 barrels compared to 2008. Most of Iran's oil fields are on their second half life and according to official statements, the production level from existing producing oil wells decreases by 300,000 barrels annually. On the other...

To resolve its concerns on Iran's nuclear programme the West has to separate technical nuclear issues from other political-security subjects, Trend Agency's Iran Service Department Chief Dalga Khatinoglu told Mehr news Agency during an interview on Tuesday. The success of the Istanbul talks held between Iran and the permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (P5+1) could mean the nuclear issue is resolvable in case if the sides can focus on Iran's nuclear activities, without politicizing them, Khatinoglu said. In a rare case, both the West and Iran recognized nuclear talks over Iran's nuclear program, that had been suspended for 15 months because of lacking mutual understanding between the parties, as "positive". The talks were held on April 14 in Istanbul. According to Khatinoglu's pointview, after Iran's complete cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), lifting some of the sanctions against Iran would be reasonab...