Iran's energy sector review

Iran has officially confirmed that it turns stocks of 20 percent enriched uranium (UF6) into uranium oxide (UO2) partly to produce fuel. Iran turned a half of its 20-percent enriched 189-kilogram uranium stocks into powder last year. In May, the number of centrifuges at Iran's Fordo plant was 1,064, but in August doubled to 2,140. This means Iran's capacity for producing 20 percent refined uranium doubled. In any case, the new centrifuges installed at Fordo have not been active yet, but operating centrifuges produce 10 to 20 kg of 20 percent enriched uranium per month. Thus, 20-percent enriched uranium means that the density of the isotope U235 is 20 percent in UF6. If the density of these isotopes is over 90 percent, uranium can be used in nuclear weapons. In normal conditions, i.e. in raw uranium, the density of this isotope is 0.7 percent. Producing 5 to 6 kg of 90 percent enriched uranium from 250 kg of 20 percent refined uranium is possible, some volume that enou...

Following in the footsteps of several top Iranian officials, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad welcomed U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's offer for direct talks between the two nations on Wednesday. Ahmadinejad's welcome came simultaneously with the implementation of new U.S. sanctions on Iran which were approved by the Senate and received President Barak Obama's signature on Feb.6. However, regarding a deadline on Iran's disputed nuclear program and the continued worsening of the Iranian economy, Tehran may be convinced that there is no way out except for direct negotiations with Washington. Iran, whose oil export shared 87.9 percent of total export in 2011, faced serious obstacles with both crude oil exports and revenue collection last year. According to reports, Iran's oil export halved during 2012. Iran's petroleum minister confirmed a 40 percent drop in oil revenues and a 45 percent dip in the collection of oil export incomes. Iran's national curr...

Kazakhstan has officially confirmed that the country will host talks on the nuclear program between Iran and the "5 +1" countries. But why Kazakhstan? Upon Iran's initiative, talks on the nuclear program were held in Turkey, Iraq and Russia in 2012. Iraq's Shiite government led by Nuri al-Maliki is a close ally of Iran. Turkey is not only a Muslim country, but also a country in non-compliance with Western sanctions, and the largest economic partner of Iran. Russia is one of the six countries (along with the U.S., Great Britain, France, China and Germany) and holds about the same position with Iran against the West. This year Iran offered to hold talks in Egypt, but the "5 +1" countries dismissed this proposal. Egypt is a Muslim country, in addition, Iran has been seeking to expand relations with the country for many years. It should be noted that there have been no diplomatic relations between Iran and Egypt for 33 years. Both countries are members...

The Pakistani Federal Cabinet's final approval of the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline construction on Wednesday is a long step towards realising an Iranian gas supply to its eastern neighbour, but not necessarily against the TAPI pipeline with Turkmen origin gas. Looking at the facts that Iran's gas trade balance is negative, its new gas extraction projects have faced long delays and also the rate of gas consumption in the country is faster than the gas production rate, it seems that buying gas from Iran is more beneficial for Pakistan. Firstly, the gas delivery was scheduled for 2015. Iranian giant South Pars gas field has five phases including 12, 15, 16, 17 and 18 and with an above 70 per cent progress would come on stream in next few years. The amount of Iran's first stage gas delivery has been set at only 7.8 bcm per year. This volume equals to one South Pars phase's production level. On the other hand the costs of construction on the Iran-Pak Pipeline (Peac...

The total extraction volume of Iran's neighbours in the Persian Gulf from the joint oil and gas fields is currently nine times more than Tehran's share, the Majlis Research Centre reports. Iran shares 28 oil and gas fields with neighbouring countries, including a disputed joint oilfield with Iraq. In the Persian Gulf region, Iran has 15 joint oil and gas fields with the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman and Kuwait. United Arab Emirates extracts 136,000 bpd of oil from seven joint fields, while Iran only extracts 56,000 barrels daily. Saudi Arabia also extracts 450,000 barrels of oil from the four joint fields, while Iran's produces a daily 42,000 barrels. Iran's main problem is the giant South Pars gas field. This is the world's biggest gas field shared between Iran and Qatar with above 28 trillion cubic meters of gas reserves. Doha's gas pump currently is two times more than Iran and is extracting crude oil from this field's ...

Iran's economic performance for 2012 was composed of alarming indicators for Iranians. An 0.9 economic contraction, 27.4 per cent inflation rate, 14 per cent unemployment, 50 per cent decrease in oil exports which shared 87.9 per cent of the country's total exports in 2011, increasing bad loans to $60 billion and increasing liquidity to around $350 billion. Now the Iranian government headed by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad whose rule will finish in six months, has new disputed economic plans. According to a Mehr News Agency report, the government wants to issue 17 million 'food cards' for poorer citizens aimed to support them with oil, rice, sugar and probably meat and chicken. The Iranian government reportedly agreed with parliament to pay a monthly sum of between 800, 000 to 1000, 000 rials to very poor families as well. Several days ago,the government and parliament agreed to allocate $2 billion from the National Development Fund (NDF) to provide staple foods for 15 million...

Iran's national currency has dropped in value yet again by nine per cent during the past three days against the USD which is soaring from 33,700 to 39, 000 rials. According to official statistics, the dollar rate in Iran on January 23, 2012 was 21,000 indicating an 18, 000 rials difference compared to same date this year. A sharp decrease in Iran's rial value took place when western sanctions on Iran's banking and oil exports came into force in late June. However after arresting tens of dollar dealers in the open market and also establishing the Forex Centre to provide limited USD to importers several per cent cheaper than the dollar rate in the open market, the USD rate on Iran's open market decreased a little in September and the rate has been kept almost unchanged until last Sunday. Re-increasing the USD rate in Iran during the past few days has several internal and external reasons. First of all, the Iranian government had provided importers of vital p...