Head of Iran Export Confederation Mohammad Lahouti says achieving the $42 billion non-oil export target which the country has set for the current Iranian calendar year (ends on March 20, 2021) is possible considering the recent improvements in exports.

“Considering the growth of [non-oil] exports in late 1398 [previous Iranian calendar year ended on March 19] which continued in the current year, the exports are expected to grow significantly in the second half of the year, and hopefully we will achieve the foreseen target,” Lahouti told ILNA.

“Of course, we missed the first quarter of this year due to the coronavirus outbreak and the closure of borders; however, since over 80 percent of the border crossings have been reopened, the exports growth will be much higher in [the Iranian calendar month of] Khordad (May 21-June 20),” he added.

He further noted that it could also be possible for the exports to increase in the second half of the year to even exceed the $42 billion target.

Mentioning the preferential trade deal with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), the official said Eurasia will be a great export opportunity this year and we have also the largest markets in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“China and India are also among our target markets; we are trying to increase our exports to China and hopefully our exports to India will return to normal levels as well.”

According to Lahouti, the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade is targeting 15 neighboring countries for non-oil exports in the current year, and the diversity of the target markets has not changed much.

Iran to launch joint chamber office in Syria

Elsewhere in his remarks, the Export Confederation head said Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) has purchased a building in Syria and the office of Iran-Syria joint chamber of commerce in the Arab country will be opened soon.

“Naturally, by launching the Iranian Chamber of Commerce office in Syria, we can expand exports and investment in this country,” he said.

“When the Syrian market opens and conditions return to normal, we will have various plans for this country as well.”

The official noted that Syria is looking for joint investment, and Iran’s goal is to increase non-oil export to the country.

“Syria is also a good market for joint ventures, but infrastructure must be provided and protocols must be followed,” Lahouti emphasized.

Share your view!

Iran’s gross domestic product (GDP), excluding the oil sector, is expected to register a positive growth rate of 1.8 percent in the current Iranian year (to end March 19), the Majlis Research Center said in a report on Iran’s economy.

“Although due to the significant negative growth rate of the oil sector, economic growth in the country will continue to be negative in 1398 [the current Iranian calendar year] but oil-free economic growth is estimated at 1.8 percent for the year,” the report said, icana.ir reported.

The report put the growth for the country’s agriculture, industry, energy, construction, and the service sectors at 5.5 percent, 1.5 percent, and 10 percent, as well as 14.5 and 0.5 percent, respectively, for the current Iranian year.

Last week, the Statistical Center of Iran (SCI) reported that the country’s non-oil gross domestic product has recorded a positive growth rate of 0.9 percent in the third quarter of the current year (September 23-December 21, 2019).

The overall GDP growth, including oil production, however, stood at -1.7 percent for the period, according to new data provided by the head of the Statistical Center of Iran, Javad Hosseinzadeh.

Economic growth in the first three quarters was minus 7.6 percent. By excluding oil, the figure stands at zero percent.

The sectors of agriculture, industry, mines, and services registered growth rates of 3.2 percent, minus 16.6 percent, and minus 0.2 percent, respectively, for the three quarters.

Share your view!

China is planning to invest $280 billion in Iran’s oil and gas industry, according to Petroleum Economist magazine.

The energy affairs magazine quoted a senior source who was linked to the Iranian Oil Ministry, as stating that this enormous investment represents a key point in a new agreement, worth $400, inked between the two countries. This was confirmed during Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif’s visit to China in late August, to present a roadmap for the strategic comprehensive partnership agreement, which concluded in 2016.

China’s investment in Iranian oil and gas industry has been put at the focal attention amid trade war between China and US and tight competition of these two countries concurrent with the US sanctions imposed on Iran.

Accordingly, this investment will be made as a solution for bypassing and circumventing US sanctions by Chinese companies.

Share your view!

Iran’s crude oil exports hit 2,617 mbd in April 2018, a new record since implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) back in January 2016.

The record was gained amid US President Donald Trump’s threats to pull out of the deal that was struck between Tehran and the P5+1 group of countries to curb parts of Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for eased sanctions on the OPEC member’s vital economic sectors.

The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) exported an average of 2.877 million barrels per day of crude oil and gas condensate during the month to Asian and European markets which was an unprecedented figure since implementation of the JCPOA.

Iran’s traditional oil customers, China, India, South Korea and Japan, bought over 60% of its petroleum cargoes during the month.

China and India alone imported roughly 1.4 mbd from Iran during the month.

Share your view!

Exports volume for Iran’s crude oil stands at two million and one hundred thousand barrels per day (mb/d) in March 2018. The figure is expected to increase in April 2018.

China and India are the largest buyers of Iranian crude, with more than one million barrels in total.

The figure is expected to reach nearly 1.3 million barrels per day in April, while China and India will maintain their position as the first and second largest oil importers of Iranian crude.

Dutch-British Shell, France Total, Italian ENI and Saras Companies, Greek Hellenic Petroleum and Spain Repsol and Hungary MOL are among Iranian oil customers in Europe.

According to the Oil Ministry’s report, Iran has also exported 400,000 barrels per day of condensates during the March with South Korea was the biggest customer with purchasing half of the amount.

South Korea has requested for more gas condensate from Iran, however, due to increased domestic consumption and its allocation to Persian Gulf Star Oil Co., there is no possibility of realizing South Korea’s demands for it. South Korea now receives about 200,000 barrels of gas condensate per day from Iran.

Share your view!

India, the world’s No. 3 crude oil consumer, received about 266,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil from Iran in November, according to a review of tanker arrival data from trade sources and numbers available on Thomson Reuters Eikon.

For April-November, the first eight months of this fiscal year, India shipped in about 427,200 bpd, according to the data reported by Reuters.

But India’s oil imports from Iran will likely rise in December, as vessels holding about 4 million barrels of oil sailed from the Iranian ports in end-November and discharged cargoes in early December, the data showed.

Iran has cut oil prices in efforts to retain Asian customers and boost the appeal of its crude compared with other Middle Eastern supply.

Overall India imported 4.7 million bpd oil in November, meaning growth of about 12 percent from a year ago as the country raised its refining capacity.

First deputy oil minister in November announced that Iran has turned to customers in Europe to shore up its crude oil exports.

Iran is in negotiations to secure new buyers in Europe, Marzieh Shahdaei said.

Shahdaei said some of our customers in Asia have reduced imports, but that does not undermine Iran’s crude exports.

Refiners in Italy, France, the Netherlands, Greece and Turkey are the biggest customers of Iranian crude in Europe.

Share your view!

Iran says a host of European giants are bidding for the development of its South Azadegan oil field – which was once considered as the world’s biggest oil find after it was discovered over 15 years ago.

Nouroddin Shahnazizadeh, the managing director of the Petroleum Development and Engineering Company of Iran, told the domestic media that the leading European bidders for the project include Total (France), Shell (UK/Hollande), Eni (Italy), Wintershall (Germany), Rosneft (Russia), OMV (Austria) and Maersk (Denmark).

Shahnazizadeh added that several Asian companies including CNPC and Sinopec (China), ONGC (India), Pertamina (Indonesia), Petronas (Malaysia) and PTTP (Thailand) would also participate in a tender over South Azadegan.

The official said officials from the bidding companies had visited Iran for three days to become fully aware about the conditions of the project. Almost a dozen of them, he added, had been even taken to visit the project site.

Nevertheless, Shahnazizadeh did not indicate when the tender over South Azadegan would be held.

Iran has repeatedly postponed the tender over the giant field which it jointly shares with Iraq.

Reuters quoted an unnamed Iranian official as saying in June that the bidding over the project had been delayed by another few months.

This, the unnamed official told Reuters, was meant to allow energy companies more time to study the field.

Iran discovered Azadegan oil field in 1999 in what was the country’s biggest oil find in decades. The country accordingly teamed up with Inpex to push the project toward development. However, the Japanese company later quit the project in what appeared to be the result of US sanctions against Iran.

The NIOC later divided the project into South Azadegan and North Azadegan and both were awarded to China’s CNPC when Iran’s former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005-2013) was in office.

The media reported in 2014 that Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh had sidelined CNPC from South Azadegan due to its protracted delays in developing the field.

South Azadegan is believed to hold an in-place oil reserve of about 33.2 billion barrels and its recoverable resources estimated at about 5.2 billion barrels.

Share your view!

Farhad Daneshvar: President Hassan Rouhani in an addressing to the parliament on August 20, said that drawing $100 billion in foreign investment to develop Iran’s oil industry is among the oil minister’s main tasks in his second term.

“There is bad news and good news,” believes Chris Cook, a strategic market consultant, who also formerly headed the International Petroleum Exchange.

“The bad news is that the Trump administration is intent on making Iranian access to dollars — whether dollar payments or dollar investment via equity funding or debt financing — to all intents and purposes impossible, notwithstanding anything in the JCPOA,” Cook said responding to Trend query regarding the Islamic Republic’s capability to draw foreign investment to renew the country’s oil and gas industry.

“The good news is that it is completely possible for trillions of dollars worth of investment to be made in Iran and in neighboring countries without using dollars at all. This is because accounting/pricing — or keeping score — of transactions in dollars is very different from using the dollar clearing system to repay dollar debts or repatriate dollar profits on investment,” he added.

Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh has in recent years been engaged in updating the long-standing ‘Energy Diplomacy’, developed during the former president Mohammad Khatami’s administration, Cook reminded, adding that this ‘smart energy policy’ instrument consisted of energy swaps, such as the Caspian oil swap (flows of Caspian crude oil into northern Iran, exchanged for flows of crude oil delivered out of the Persian Gulf).

“In addition to reactivation of these and similar swaps, perhaps the most remarkable — and most important — ‘Energy Diplomacy’ was the recently contracted South Pars 11 investment by Total, through which 20 years’ investment of technology, skills and experience will be swapped for a flow of condensate. The outcome is firstly a ‘smart swap’ of intellectual value for the value of carbon fuels, and secondly, through the participation of Chinese investors the deal provides 20 years’ security of condensate demand for Iran and 20 years’ security of condensate supply for China,” Cook suggested.

“The point is that such smart swaps will — within a suitable networked market platform or ‘energy clearing union’ — enable many hundred billion dollars worth of intellectual and other resources required by Iran to be swapped for many hundred billion dollars worth of carbon fuels supplied by Iran.

“Since such swaps do not take place on the oil market platform dominated by the US, they do not require settlement in dollars through the US dollar clearing system from which Iran is effectively excluded.”

Share your view!

Iran’s crude oil and condensate exports to Europe has reached one million barrels per day.

Iran sells crude oil to European companies within the framework of long-term deals and spot cargo, however the volume of spot cargo is higher, an informed source told Fars News Agency.

Iran still encounters problems in receiving payments due to banking issues, the source said, adding that central bank officials are seeking ways to expedite the process.

The source said that Iran also faces the same problem in oil export to Asian countries as banking sanctions still remain in place, the source said.

Iran was exporting 2.5 mbd of crude oil and gas condensate prior to the sanctions which were imposed in 2012, of which 18 percent was supplied to the EU.

After 2012, the EU cut Iran oil purchase while Asian countries had to decrease Iranian oil import gradually, which led to a decline in Iranian oil and gas condensate exports to 1.2 mbd in 2015.

After the removal of sanctions in 2016, based on nuclear agreement, Iran resumed its oil exports.

Share your view!

Iranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh says Iran will need 200 billion dollars for financing oil and gas projects under the 6th development plan of the country.

Speaking after a ceremony to sign a deal between National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and an consortium comprising Total, China’s CNPC International and Petropars in Tehran on Monday, Mr. Zangeneh said $130 billion dollars will be invested in upstream projects and the rest will be allotted to developing downstream projects in the industry.
He said over 70% of the amount can be supplied by tapping foreign resources, adding, “We need foreign investments in order to reach the envisaged 6 million barrels per day of crude oil and condensate output under the 6th development plan of the country.”
The official also said that arrangements for holding a tender for developing Azadegan Oilfield.

Share your view!