Iran's energy sector review

The Central Bank of Iran released a report on June 25, covering economic performance from March 22, 2013 to December 22, 2013. The report says that the country's petroleum export - including crude oil, gas condensate, oil productions, natural gas liquids (NGL), natural gas, liquid petroleum gas (LPG) as well as various oils and lubricants* - reached $ 46.532 billion during the mentioned period. On the other hand, the statistics of a three-month period ending on March 22, 2013 indicates petroleum export value was above $16 billion. So, Iran during a 12-month period started on December 22, 2012 (approximately corresponds to the year 2013) exported about $62.5 billion worth of mentioned commodities. It is not clear that CBI calculated the petroleum revenues based on selling, loading or payment date. The Iran Custom Administration's monthly statistics also indicates that Iran had sold $8.63 billion worth gas condensate export during a 12-month period started on De...

Iranian oil minister said that the country's citizens are paying less than 9 percent of their consumed liquid fuel price. Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said that the government is paying the rest of the cost via subsidies. Head of Iran Energy Efficiency organization (IEEO), Hossein Sajjadi, previously said that annually the equivalent of 1,600 million barrels of oil equivalent is being consumed domestically. He said that around 400 million barrels of the mentioned amount, or 25 percent, is being wasted in the transferring process, and just 1,200 million barrels of oil equivalent are being consumed by the consumers. IEEO's latest annual report also suggest that Iran's energy consumption in 2013 was less than 1.06 billion barrels, which means that in the past two years, energy consumption in the country has increased by 140,000 barrels oil equivalent. According to the report, Iran's per capita gas and oil products' consumption is 6 and 1.6 times more than the glo...

Iran Customs Administration's reports suggest that the country's non-oil foreign trade has been increased significantly during last two months. The country's exports have been reportedly more than its imports in the mentioned period. Iran's exports in the mentioned period were around $8.154 billion, which is 30 percent more than the same time span previous year. The country's imports also stood at $7.688 billion, which shows a 35-percent increase compared to previous year. Iran's fiscal year starts on March 20 and Custom's report covers a period from March 20 to May 20. According to the Iran Customs Administration, Tehran's exports were a little more than $6 billion in the first two months of previous year, which was around 2 percent less than its preceding year. The country's imports were also $5.7 billion in the first two months of last year, some 33 percent less than its preceding year. So, Iran's non-oil trade shows a significa...

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 ...