Iran's energy sector review

The Iranian parliament will consider the draft budget presented by President Rouhani starting Dec. 14. The New Year begins in Iran on March 20 and the amount of next year's budget is planned to hit 7830 riyals (growth will be 8.4 percent compared to the previous year). The exchange rate of $1 in the draft budget is planned to hit 26,000 riyals. In this case, the budget is planned to hit $301 billion, while the price of oil is set at $ 100 per barrel in the budget. Around 31 percent of oil revenues will be transferred to the National Development Fund, 14.5 percent to the oil company next Iranian calendar year. In other words, $28.8 billion in oil revenues, which will be transferred to the state budget, will hit 54.5 percent of total oil revenues. Thus, if one deducts the share of the National Development Fund and the oil company from the sale of oil, oil revenues are defined in the draft budget in the amount of 750 trillion riyals ($28.8 billion). Around 3.3 million barrels...

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani -- unlike the country's previous president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- submitted the draft budget bill for the next Iranian calendar year (to start on March 21, 2014) to the parliament on time; something which was unprecedented in the past eight years. Rouhani brought up the point in his speech at the legislative chamber. He said that submitting the draft budget bill on time was one of his electoral campaign promises. Ahmadinejad never submitted the drafts on time which used to cause a lot of trouble. In some cases the budget still hadn't been approved a few months after beginning the new year. Iran's next year budget bill has set the ceiling budget at 7830 trillion rials (about $315 billion based on the U.S. official exchange rate of 24,850 rials). The figure shows 8.4 percent growth year on year. The bill has been devised on an average oil price of 100 dollars per barrel and the exchange rate of 26,000 rials for USD. The exchange ra...

After the "Geneva agreement" on Iran's nuclear program, speculations about reviving Iran's halved crude oil export to international markets have risen. The Middle East country's crude oil export decreased from 2.2 million barrels per day to below one mbpd since 2011, while condensate export dropped by 34 percent to about 200 tbpd during the mentioned period. The latest report published by Iran's Custom Administration says the country's condensate export soared to 345 tmbd during last Iranian calendar month (Oct.21 to Nov.22), even more than pre-sanctions' level, but what about crude oil? First of all, let's review what mechanisms were used by Iran toward the West's sanctions, aimed at chocking up the country's oil exports. Iran was unable to boost refinery capacity, so it was forced to start closing down some oil wells as well as storing crude oil in tankers. Reportedly, Iran holds 25 to 30 million barrels of unsold oil storage in tankers, ...

The latest detailed monthly report of Iranian Customs Administration, published on Dec.1 says the country's gas condensate export reached 5,582 thousand tons during the eight months of Iranian calendar year, which began on March 20. Based on the last month's report, Iran 's total condensate export stood at 4,433 thousand tons (first seven months), or about 190,000 barrels per day. Then, according the statistics of 7-month and 8-month periods, Iran exported about 1,149 thousand tons of condensates during the 8-th month (October 23 - November 22)- which equals to 345,000 barrels per day, and indicates approximately 48 percent increase compared to average condensate exports during first seven months of Iranian year. Iran 's total condensate export amount for last solar year was 9,630 thousand tons, which indicates 15.36 percent drop compared to the previous year. Before Iran had sanctions imposed on it, the country's condensate export was about 300,000 barrel...

Romeo, the famed lover in William Shakespeare's masterpiece play refers specifically to his lack of good fortune in being forced to kill Juliet's cousin, saying " I'm Fortune's fool ". This is Romeo's judgement, others have their own judgements. Coming to Iran's economy with poor performance, this is a disaster that everyone sees, yet people offer various versions of why it happened - we are talking about Iran's disastrous situation with economy. Nothing matters why and how. Whether sanctions affected Iran's economy more, or mismanagement. This is the tale of that girl who was narrating to her boyfriend -in the film of Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, directed by Chan-wook Park- about one who had imagined being two heads on her body and one day shot her head. Reaching to this fragment, the boy asked exited with a special sorrow: Which head? Right or left? No matter really, the result is known. The current statistics indicate that Iran e...

Iran's Deputy Oil Minister Hamidreza Araqi announced on November 19 that Shoorijeh gas storage facility, located in the northeastern province of Khorasan, will not come on stream in the current Iranian calendar year (to end March 20, 2014). This means that the country still remains highly dependent to gas imports from Turkmenistan. But while Iran still needs to import gas from neighboring countries to meet its domestic demands, Russia which has less gas reserves compared to Tehran, is developing its dominance in the global gas markets. The Mehr News Agency reported on November 19 that the Shoorijeh gas storage facility will not come on stream in the coming winter. According to the latest report released by United States' Energy Information Administration (EIA), Iran's gross gas output in 2011 was around 224 billion cubic metres. Some 67 percent of the mentioned amount was turned into dry natural gas, while 16 percent was injected to the oil wells, and some 17 percent...

In his last days in office, Iran's former president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad released a 140-item report on the country's development during his 8-year presidency. The 137th item says : "The country's investments in industrial projects during his two terms in office were 6.8 times more than his preceding administration ". Ahmadinejad had once said that the country's economic performances during his presidency have been way more than all the previous administrations after the 1979 revolution put together. President Rouhani's government, however, has repeatedly rejected the these items and statistics one-by-one. For example, the former president claimed that the average economic growth during his 8-year period equaled to his preceding administration's average figure (5.7 percent), but the Statistical Center of Iran recently reported that the figure is below 3.5 percent, while last year's growth alone stood at negative 5.4 percent, and this year...