Iran's energy sector review

With 290 sunny days covering m ost part of Iran, the Islamic Republic has huge potential to boost the renewables’ share in the country’s power generation. Currently the figure stands at about 0.3 percent (240 megawatts), but according to an official document, obtained by Trend, the Energy Ministry of Iran has planned to increase the share of renewables in Iran’s total power generation to 3.78 percent by March 20 and 5 percent by March 2011. Recently, the deputy of Energy Minister Houshang Falahatian told Trend on October 18 that Iran has 5-10 gigawatts (GW) renewable power firm projects for foreign companies in the next ten years. Power plants 2016/2017 MW 2017/2018 MW 2018/2019 MW 2019/2020 MW New solar power firms 350 600 960 960 New wind firms 140 90 100 100 Total cumulative renewables 730 1420 2480 3540 Total power generation 77422 80862 81997 91254 Iran ’s power generation plans from current fiscal year ...

During the last five years, Iran’s annual power generation growth stood at about 2.5 percent on average, about a half of planned volume and reached 74.7 gigawatts (GW) in a year to March 2016. Now, Iran says the country needs $25 billion worth of investment in power sector (including grid expansion, distribution sector, etc) for realizing an annual 5.5-percent growth by 2021. Deputy of Energy Minister Houshang Falahatian said that about $17 billion worth of investment is needed for power plants and $7.5 billion is needed in distribution and network sector, IRNA reported Oct.24. According to an Energy Ministry’s document obtained by Trend, Iran is preparing to increase its nominal power generation capacity to 91.254 GW by March 2020. The document didn’t include the statistics of a fiscal year to March 2021, but in case Iran wants to have a 5.5 percent yearly growth, the power output should stand at 95.33 GW. Currently, Iran’s nominal power generation capacity stands at 75.9...

The latest statistics from Iran’s energy ministry indicates that the country increased gas deliveries to power plants by almost 8.2 percent to 37.817 billion cubic meter (bcm) in the first half of the current fiscal year (FY), which started on March 21. Iran plans to increase gas-to-power to 65 bcm in the current FY. The volume was only 35 bcm in 2013. Liquid fuel consumption has significantly declined in Iran due to the boost in the gas deliveries to power sector. For instance, Iran used about 24 billion liters of gas oil and fuel oil in power sector in the fiscal year to March 2014, while this volume in the first half of current FY stands at 2.353 billion liters, almost five times less than the same period three years ago. Fuel consumption and actual power generation capacity of Iran’s power plants On the other hand, Iran’s LPG consumption in households declined from 2.4 million tons in 2010 to around 2 million tons in 2015. During this period, Iran’s LPG production also...

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...