Iran's energy sector review

Iran's energy consumption level increasingly rises, while the energy productivity and energy intensity (EE) are worsening year to year. The head of Iran Energy Efficiency Organization Hossein Sajjadi says Iran's annual energy consumption is about 1,600 million barrels of oil equivalent. According to State TV website, Iribnews.ir, Sajjadi said on May 21 that about 400 million barrels of oil equivalent energy was wasted before being consumed, while 1200 million barrels of oil equivalent is consumed. Only 300 million barrels of oil equivalent of energy are used in the industrial sector. Iran's energy consumption ratio, as well as energy intensity is much higher than the world's average, while its energy productivity is very low. Energy intensity (EE) is energy consumption relative to Gross domestic product (GDP) and energy productivity (EP) is the ratio of GDP to energy consumption. The International Monetary Fund warned Iran to reduce EE as much as possib...

A week after coming up with espionage claims towards Russian Gazprom that it has been transferring sensitive information about Iran's joint Azer oil field to Iraq, some Iranian media outlets recently claimed that the Chinese CNPC handed over the secret data about Iran's other oil field - Azadegan, to Iraq. Those are the rumors that Iran's Foreign Ministry has refused to reject completely, saying that the case is under investigation. Both Azadegan and Azer (or Azar) oilfields are jointly shared between Iran and Iraq. The Middle Eastern neighbors have seven joint oilfields, including Azadegan (Majnoon), Azer (Badra), Yadavaran (Sinbad), Naft Shahr (Naftk hana), Dehloran (Abu Ghurab) and West Paydar (Fakka) and Arvand (South Abu Ghurab). Due to the fact that Iran lacks foreign companies working on its oil fields due to imposed sanctions, Iraq is developing its joint fields more intensively, notably Azer and Azadegan fields. In total, Iran produces 130,000 barrels ...

Iran's oil ministry says the Memorandum of Understandings signed by joint Iran-Russian and Iran-Ukrainian companies have been suspended. During Ex-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency, the Iran Oil Ministry announced in late 2011 that a contract with "Russian Tatneft" to develop the Zagheh heavy oilfield, as well as three MoUs with a Ukrainian company to develop the Kuhmund, Kaki and Bushkan oil fields were signed. Now, Abdolreza Haji-Hosseinnejad, an official with the National Iranian Oil Company, said on May 13 that the sealed MoUs with mentioned companies have been halted. Tatneft Iranian former Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi said that Russia's OAO Tatarstan Tatneft (TATN) signed a $1 billion worth contract to develop Zagheh oil field during the visit of Tearstain's President Rustam Minnikhanov to Tehran on December 18, 2011. A day after that Tatneft denied signing any contract with Iran. A couple of days later, Iran's ISNA news agency ...

The amount of bad loans reached about $40 billion in Iran, while the loan-to-deposit ratio in the country's banks on average is in the critical stage. According to the latest report, published by Fars News Agency on May 11, bad loans have mounted to 1000 trillion rials, and indicate above a 14 times increase compared to nine years ago when ex-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took power. The Central Bank of Iran has not published any updated statistics, but according to mid-2013 data released by the CBI, the total amount of bank deposits were $ 218 billion (based on official exchange rate in Iran then at 25,000 rials to the USD), while the total loans amounted at $206 billion. Then the loan-to-deposit ratio was about 1.058. The bad loan amount during last ten years The main increase in bad loans occurred between 2010, mid-2014, a period when Iran's national currency dropped in value by 300 percent. Reasons According to the report published by Fars News Agency c...

Iranian Ex-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hit the record with a total of 119 foreign trips during his eight years presidency by attending to Latin America, six times to Venezuela, three times to Bolivia and two times to Brazil, Nicaragua, Cuba and Ecuador. Venezuela's late president Hugo Chavez who called Ahmadinejad the "gladiator of the anti- imperialist battle" also had visited Iran nine times since 2005 and signed more than 100 contracts worth tens of billions dollars, of which almost all of them have been canceled. Venezuela, after China (with $45 billion worth of contracts) ranks first in term of the number of contracts with Iran, but these contracts mostly faced delay or cancellation. After all of these agreements, Iran's exports to Venezuela were only $19.4 million, during Ahmadinejad's last year as president and the figure increased by 5.2 times and reached $120 million during Iran's last fiscal year, ended on March 2014, according to Iran...

Iran is going to appoint five new commercial attaches in Europe in a bid to boost its trade ties. Five new commercial attaches will be dispatched to Germany, Italy, Serbia, Spain, and Switzerland, Miraboutaleb Badri, Deputy Director of Iran's Trade Promotion Organization told Mehr news agency on May 4.. Iran and EU faced a significant drop in trade turnover during Ex-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejads' time in office due to Tehran's disputed nuclear program and hard-liners' aggressive foreign policy. According to Iran Custom Administration and Iran Commerce Chamber's official statistics, Europe had about 50 percent share in Iran's imports in 2005, as well as some 15 percent of Iran's total non-oil exports. Iran's main European partners in 2005: Rank Country Exports to Iran Share in Iran's total imports Imports from Iran Shares in Iran's total exports Rank 2 Germany $5,118,934,175 13.158 $342,778,805 3.665 ...