Iran's energy sector review

OPEC oil basket price slipped to $80.64 per barrel on Nov.3 from a mid-June figure of about $108. Iran hasn't announced officially any figure for its crude oil price, but Mehr News Agency reported in late October that Iran set its oil price at $86, as opposed to an average of $104 per barrel over the past seven months.  The Middle East country's yearly budget was based on $100 per barrel oil. Iran reportedly offers discounts as well as free shipping services for his customers to help restore the huge drop in oil export levels started in 2012 due to Western sanctions. Iran 's crude oil export went from 2.5 million barrels per day (mbpd) in late 2011 to 1.07m bpd in late 2013. After sanctions eased due to the interim nuclear accord obtained on November 24, 2013, Iran 's crude oil increased, mostly because of soaring the natural gas condensate exports. However, according to the Custom Administration's latest report published on Nov.3, Iran exported a b...

Gas condensate export, which shares about one third of Iran 's total crude oil exports, rose after a two-month plunge. Iran 's Custom Administration released a common report on Oct.28, saying that Iran 's total non-oil exports reached $26.943 billion. The monthly "detailed report" hasn't been published on custom's official website yet, but the "detailed report" obtained and published on Iran's Donya-e-Eqtesad daily news on Oct.29 indicates that Iran's gas condensate export reached 10.849 million tons during seven months of Iran's fiscal year. Iran 's fiscal year starts on March 21. Iran includes gas condensate (ultra-light crude oil) in non-oil exports basket. According to latest monthly report published by the Custom Administration about the country's non-oil exports in first half on current fiscal year, Iran exported some 9.223 million tons of gas condensate. Followed by about 1.616 million tons of condensate la...

Aside from threats over Iran's yearly budget law based on $100/barrel of crude oil, the country may encounter another blow from low oil price - to its petrochemical sector. The $100 oil price has both direct effect and indirect damage on Iran's petrochemical sector, by declining its shares value at stock markets. Iran's petrochemical industry accounts to 40-42 percent of the country's total capital market. Capital markets are financial markets for the buying and selling of long-term debt or equity-backed securities. The huge share of petrochemical industry in Iran's $156-billion worth capital market (1 USD/31,000 rials, based on open market exchange rate) demonstrates the importance of petrochemical industry in Iran's economy. During the current year Iranian calendar year (started on March 21), the petrochemical units faced an index drop at the capital market, due to uncertainty in getting the crude oil and gas price set for them by the government. ...

Despite a 32-percent increase in gas delivery to power plants in warm seasons, Iran expects this figure to decline by 3.5 times in fall and winter due to projected soar in housing gas consumption. Iran's natural gas consumption in housing sector soared to 220 million cubic meters per day (mcmpd) during last week, 30 mcmpd more than the previous week due to reaching cold season and declining the air temperatures by 15 degrees. Iran's gas consumption level in winter is expected to surpass 450 mcmpd. Last winter, during some weeks, Iran's housing gas consumption reached about 500 mcmpd, which led to cutting gas delivery to power plants, petrochemical units, gas injection to old oil fields and industrial sector, due to gas shortage. In addition to cutting gas supplies to power plants, which led to burning $30 billion of liquid fuels, the Iranian government had to decrease gas delivery to petrochemical plants from 35 mcmpd in summer to 15 mcmpd in winter. This caused ...

After four years, in early 2014 Iran has implemented early gas production from the biggest phase of giant South Pars gas field and prepares to double the production in the next couple of months. The Islamic Republic also plans to implement early gas production at other phases in the near future. The giant South Pars gas field which counts above 40 percent of the country's gas production is the world's biggest gas field with above 33 trillion cubic meters (cm) of reserves. It's a joint field between Iran and Qatar . Until 2009, Iran inaugurated 10 of 28 phases of South Pars, producing about 290 million cubic meters per day (mcmpd) of gross natural gas, but the figure increased by 12 mcmpd in early 2014 by implementation of 12 phase, the field's biggest phase. Iran boosted the gas output by launching the first platform (12A) to 25 mcmpd in July. Rokaneddin Javadi the managing director of National Iranian Oil Company told IRNA on Oct.20 that another two...

Iran's GDP (gross domestic product) growth increased by 4.6 percent during the spring of 2014 for first time since 2012, according to the Central Bank of Iran. The figure raised serious doubts among experts and Iranian government had to justify and defend the announced figure several times with various facts and statistics, like comparing the oil export level during spring with the same period in the previous years. There is no accurate statistics about Iran's oil export during this period, but the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) says that the growth of oil sector was 6.1 percent at the time. Mohammad Reza Nobakht told Mehr News Agency on Oct.17 that Iran sold crude oil averagely at $104 during the current fiscal year, without mentioning the amount of exported crude oil. Mehr reported that Iran offered discounts to customers for its oil last week and currently each Iranian barrel is sold at $86. In spring, the figure stood at $114-$115 per barrel, but has been on a decl...