Iran's energy sector review

Iran’s liquid fuels export stands at 400,000 barrels per day (b/d), but the country plans to increase this volume by 33 percent in three years. Iran shares 13.5 percent of the total Middle East oil products export with selling 60 million liters per day (ml/d) or about 400,000 b/d, the head of National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company told Shana Oct.4. The figure was less than 33 ml/d during the last fiscal year, according to the official statistics. “Currently the capacity of exports stands at 500,000 b/d, but the figure hasn’t been realized because of the rapid export growth, loading restrictions and export limits, but we planned to export 600,000 b/d (80 ml/d) of liquid fuels by March 2020,” he said. Production Consumption Export Bunkering Gasoline 67.1 70.8 - - Gas oil 89.4 82.2 5.1 0.8 Fuel oil 10.1 9 27.5 12.5 Kerosene 64.5 24.5 0.03 - The figures are for last Iranian fiscal year, based on ml/d Accordin...

Iran has rapidly increased its oil production from 2.8 million barrels per day (mb/d) in 2015 to 3.8 mb/d in September, but the country is also preparing to get into oil products markets seriously. A source in Iran’s Oil Ministry told Trend on condition of anonymity that during the last fiscal year (ended on March 20), Iran exported 33.3 million liters per day (ml/d) of liquid fuels, of which about 82% was fuel oil. The figure indicates 44 percent growth year-to-year. On the other hand, the latest official statistics indicate that despite increasing the gasoline imports by 25 percent to 12 million liters a day during the first quarter of the current fiscal year, Iran increased gas oil export 430 percent to 13 ml/d, while the fuel oil and LPG exports also experienced a significant growth. Iran's gas oil and fuel oil consumption at power plants decreased by 55.3 and 56.6 percent respectively during the first half of the current fiscal year, according to the official statistics...

As Iran is planning to attract $100 billion worth of investment by 2021 to develop its oil and gas fields, it seems that foreigners would face a challenge in Iran: competing with Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and The Execution of Imam Khomeini's Order aka (EIKO). IRGC is still blacklisted by the US, but the nuclear agreement, commenced in January 2016, lifted sanctions against the EIKO, a vast holding company controlled by the supreme leader with assets and commercial operations worth an estimated $95 billion. Therefore, foreign companies would be cautious to cooperate, while the pressure on Iranian government for signing mega contracts with IRGC and EIKO continues. Earlier, Iran’s oil ministry and French Total signed a confidentiality agreement for studying giant South Azadegan oil field. Iran’s Oil ministry said that the mentioned agreement doesn’t mean that Iran commits to give away the development of this field to Total. However Fars News Agency, close to...

Iran says it is getting ready to complete a pipeline and a terminal to export a "new grade" of crude by year-end. Seyed Mohsen Ghamsari, director for international affairs at the National Iranian Oil Company, told Reuters that the terminal near Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf would be ready to export initially 300,000 barrels per day (b/d) of the new grade of crude. The report didn’t mention which fields would produce the new grade oil, but SHANA covered the Reuters’ report in Persian and added that the new type of oil belongs to West Karoun block. This block includes five fields – all of them are joint fields with Iraq’s Basra region. Reuters, itself also mentioned that "the crude blend will be of similar quality to Iraq's Basra Heavy crude, with an API gravity of between 22 and 26 degrees and a sulphur content higher than 2 percent.” West Karoun Block West Karoun includes North and South Azadegan, Yadavaran and North and South Yaran fields with 64 bil...

While OPEC members, with some major oil producers like Russia, are preparing to hold a meeting on "common actions" for supporting market prices in Algeria in late September, the cartel’s Secretary-General Mohammed Barkindo is going to visit Iran the next week to encourage the country to help balance the global oil market. Barkindo is scheduled to visit Tehran Sept. 5 to meet with Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh to talk the oil freeze plan, an oil ministry official said on condition of anonymity, Mehr news agency reported. Iran’s oil output decreased from around 3.9 million barrels per day (mb/d) in 2008 to about 2.8 mb/d in 2015 due to the tightened Western sanctions on Iran. Under the sanctions, international companies left the country and none of them has returned as of now, even after elimination of the sanctions in mid-January 2016. Iran has resumed the oil production to about 3.7 mb/d, but the country  has five joint fields with Iraq  and has already d...

The Iranian parliament passed a bill which ended the gasoline rationing plan - the legacy of former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad since 2007. The fuel cards were charged every month as much as 60 liters and every auto owner could consume this amount at 10,000 rials per liter (about $0.29/liter). For extra consumption, citizens could purchase the non-rationed gasoline at 15,000 rials, or $0.43/liter. Iranian government has increased the fuel price by 10 times gradually since 2007, providing both rationed and unlimited gasoline. Iran is one of the world's major crude oil exporters, but the country is traditionally is a gasoline importer due to huge amount of fuel consumption in the country. Iranians consumes about 72 million liters per day (ml/d) of gasoline, of which 12 ml/d is imported. * Based on official statistics. Iran's fiscal year starts on March 21 During the last ten years, besides rationing gasoline, Iranian government also soared the distribution of com...

At least 24 Iranian oil fields, which share above 80 percent of the country's total crude oil output, have been needing gas re-injection since the beginning of Islamic Republic, 1979, but the re-injection amount was far below the demand. *According to official documents According to two official documents obtained by Trend, Iran has re-injected about 580.810 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas to oil fields from 1996 to 2015, while the needed amount was 1,270 bcm. Some 17 of the mentioned 24 fields, prioritized for gas re-injection, were producing 3.7 million barrels per day (mb/d) in 1979, but the figure plunged to 1.75 mb/d in mid 2000s and continued to decline. Currently the country's total oil output stands at 3.65 mb/d, about 2.3 mb/d less than in mid 1970s. As mentioned above, 80 percent of Iran's active oil fields are in their second half-life and lose 8-12 percent of their output naturally each year. Iran needs extra 942.795 bcm of gas (or 287 mcm/d) re-inj...