Khoeygan-Oliya in Isfahan province was the biggest Armenian village in Iran. This village had 3 church and One of those churches, named Johannes church built on Safavid era and registered in Iran national heritage.
Photo: Iran Paragliding championships
Iran Paragliding championships starts with 120 participant in Veis Qarni paragliding site near Kermanshah.
About Kermanshah
The city of Kermanshah is the capital of Kermanshah Province, located in the western part of Iran. Kermanshah is the largest and central city in the west with a population about one million people. Kermanshah developed in the 4th century AD under the patronage of the Sassanid. The city is situated on the foothills of the Zagros mountain range, 525 km south-west of Tehran. It has many natural and historical sightseeing in the city and the towns around. The city enjoys a temperate climate and regular seasons. The people of Kermanshah are warm and friendly. The languages spoken by the people are Kurdish and Farsi. The beautiful nature, together with its people’s dialects and their spiritual and religious characters make the province substantially unique in the region. Kermanshah has a rich history of culture and civilization, possessing monuments illustrating its people’s values for life and humanity throughout historic and prehistoric periods.
Iran’s petrochemical exports up by 12%
An NPC official said that Iran’s petrochemical industry experienced a six percent uplift in production over five months and a 12- percent rise in exports over four months since beginning of the current Iranian year (began March 21).
Director of Production Control in Iran’s National Petrochemical Company (NPC) Alimohammad Bosaghzadeh pointed to five-month statistics for production and the four-month statistics for export of petrochemical products since the beginning of present Iranian year saying, “in the first five months, amount of production grew by six percent as compared to the similar period last year even though output figures normally drop in the first half of the year due to complete overhaul in complexes,” MNA reported.
The official, while voicing satisfaction towards the trend in production, estimated that the overall output level will grow by five million tons as compared to a year earlier.
He also underlined that efforts were being made to boost nominal capacity utilization to as high as 86 percent given that the figure for last year stood at 81 percent.
“Export volumes of petrochemical products have also risen in the ongoing year as the figures catapulted by 12 percent in volume and four percent in value.
Bosaghzadeh expressed hope that more feedstock will be supplied to petrochemical complexes in the second half of the year in a bid to realize a more sustainable production.
“In addition to development of the upstream sector, NPC has also put on agenda expansion of downstream projects with the aim of completing the production chain, which is turn, brings about a reduction in raw sales and an upsurge in sustainable employment opportunities,” he underlined.
The NPC official noted that a number of new petrochemical projects will come on stream later this year to further boost output capacity; “partnership of local banks and attraction of foreign investors can enhance the process.”
The production capacity for Iran’s petrochemical products is expected to reach 72 million tons worth 17 million dollars by the end of the present Iranian calendar year.
€3 billion credit line by Siemens on the way to Iran
German industrial group Siemens is about to undertake financing rail and power plant projects worth 3 billion euros in Iran, a senior Iranian official says.
“On a trip to Germany, we had discussions about Siemens’ participation in Iran’s railway and power plant projects,” Deputy Minister of Road and Urban Development for International Affairs Asghar Fakhriyeh-Kashan said on Tuesday.
In the rail sector, Iran is going to buy a number of wagons from Siemens for use on a high-speed line between Tehran, Qom and Isfahan, he said. Siemens will also cooperate on providing signaling equipment and installing communication signs.
“Through financing a number of construction projects, Siemens plans to enter into a joint venture with Iran’s MAPNA company both in the power plant and locomotive manufacturing sector in order to boost domestic production,” he said.
Last month, the Export-Import Bank of China (EXIM) signed a $1.5 billion deal to finance the electrification of a high-speed rail line between the Iranian cities of Tehran and Mashhad.
EXIM’s Vice President Sun Ping said in Tehran that the institution had provided loans for 26 Iranian projects in the electricity, petrochemicals, non-ferrous metals, oil and gas sectors, worth $9 billion.
China Railway Group Limited (CREC) is carrying out the $1.8 billion electrification of the high-speed rail link between Tehran, Qom and Isfahan.
Iran has announced plans to splurge up to $25 billion over the next 10 years on the modernization and expansion of its railway network.
Siemens was one of the first major companies to agree on a deal with Iran after the lifting of sanctions in January 2016, signing a $1.6 billion memorandum of understanding on Iran’s rail infrastructure and a long-term roadmap with MAPNA on the power sector.
The agreement included a license for manufacturing F-class gas turbines in Iran, under which more than 20 gas turbines and associated generators will be delivered over the next four to five years.
Uber selected an Iranian as a C.E.O.
Uber has chosen Expedia boss Dara Khosrowshahi to be its chief executive, ending months of speculation in the firm’s search for a new leader.
The decision was made by Uber’s board late on Sunday, a source told the BBC, but the company has made no official announcement.
Mr Khosrowshahi would replace Travis Kalanick, who resigned in June following pressure from shareholders.
The firm is battling to repair its image after a series of scandals.
Several big names – including Hewlett Packard boss Meg Whitman and General Electric chairman Jeff Immelt – had been touted for the role.
Mr Immelt ruled himself out of the race over the weekend, while reports intensified that Ms Whitman was the most likely successor despite her saying she was not interested in the job either.
Mr Kalanick bowed to pressure from shareholders in the San Francisco-based firm and stood down in June.
His resignation came after months of turmoil at the firm, including a series of controversies about sexual harassment, macho culture and the departure of senior executives.
Uber’s board has been meeting daily and was deliberating on its pick for a new leader over the weekend.
A spokesperson for the company declined to comment on the appointment and there has been no comment from Mr Khosrowshahi.
Born in Tehran, Mr Khosrowshahi studied engineering at Brown University. He cut his teeth in banking, and then worked for Barry Diller at IAC, which bought Expedia and then appointed Mr Khosrowshahi chief executive.
He has been chief executive of online travel firm Expedia from 2005.
He had reportedly been a critic of Trump’s immigration ban that prevented people from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States. Expedia also supported a lawsuit against the ban in January.
If he takes the Uber job, he would have a steep task ahead of him. It includes repairing Uber’s corporate image, improving relations with investors and creating a profitable business after years of losses.
Iranian Airlines to buy new Boeing, Airbus planes
Iran’s Kish Airline has announced an ambitious plan to purchase over a dozen new planes from global aviation giant Airbus and Boeing.
Kish Airline CEO Mohammad Taqi Jadidi was quoted by the domestic media that the plan envisaged buying 10 planes from Boeing and 6 more from Airbus.
Jadidi told Iran’s IRNA news agency that the new Airbus planes would be added to his company’s fleet before the end of the current Iranian calendar year (21 March 2018).
He added that Boeing planes would be purchased in the next Iranian year.
Nevertheless, the official did not specify which specific models the purchases would involve.
Kish Airline belongs to Kish Free Zone Organization and currently has 14 planes, including 2 Airbus-320, 2 Airbus-321, seven MD planes and 3 Fokker-100 planes, IRNA added in its report.
Airbus has already sealed deals to sell a total of 173 new aircraft to Iranian airlines with a collective value of tens of billions of dollars.
On the same front, Boeing had accrued orders and options for 140 planes, while the smaller European turboprop-maker ATR attracted orders and options for 40 aircraft.
Iran Air – the country’s national flag-carrier airline – appears to be the most active buyer of new planes. The company would buy a total of 220 new planes from Airbus, Boeing and ATR, covering both wide and narrow-bodied jets as well as turboprops. Airbus and ATR made their first deliveries of several planes over the past few months but Boeing deliveries would start in 2018.
Among the country’s smaller carriers, Iran Aseman Airlines would buy 30 new Boeing 737 Max 8 jets, with options for 30 more.
Iran Airtour would also purchase 45 Airbus A320neo aircraft.
And Zagros Airlines would acquire 28 Airbus aircraft, including 20 of its A320neo model and eight of its larger A330neo.
Iran planning to $100b investment in oil industry
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.”
Iran’s South Pars Gas Output Crosses 2.5m Barrels
Iran’s production of crude oil from the oil layer of the supergiant South Pars Gas Field (SPOL) has exceeded 2.5 million barrels.
The country is planning to send the layer’s 5th oil consignment in the coming days, said Fardin Asadi, operator of SPOL’s development project.
He said a 500,000-barrel crude oil consignment is being loaded for export in the current week.
He said production from the layer’s 7 wells has been planned to maximize production life of the reserves while maximizing production.
Asadi further said that injection operations will begin by March 2018 in order to stabilize reservoir pressure of the layer.
The layer is estimated to roughly hold over 6 billion barrels of oil with over 10% recovery rate that can be enhanced to beyond 35% by adopting EOR and IOR techniques.
More exact estimation of the layer needs spudding more exploration wells, he said.
Over 700 Iranian firms to attend world’s largest carpet expo
The head of Iran National Carpet Center (INCC) said a total of 730 domestic companies are expected to take part in the 26th edition of the world’s largest handmade carpet expo which is scheduled to open in Tehran on August 23.
Hamid Kargar added the Iranian capital will play host to the 26th Iran Handmade Carpet Exhibition — the biggest of its kind worldwide — during August 23-29, IFP News reported.
He said the expo will be held in Tehran International Fairground.
Kargar added the exhibition will be held in 14 halls spanning over an area of more than 30,000 square meters.
A hall will be allocated to specialized entrepreneurs, he said, adding they will be provided with free pavilions in Hall No. 5. “[A number of] foreign traders who are among the customers of handwoven Iranian carpets, particularly those from Iran’s export targets, have been identified and invited to visit the expo.”
He put the number of foreign traders at 91, of which 38 are Iranian carpet merchants living abroad and 14 are from the US.
Kargar said concurrent with the exhibition, the Seventh Top Carpet Exhibition and Festival will be held in Tehran with the aim of creating new intricate carpet patterns and improving the process of carpet production.
He added the fest’s slogan is ‘Modernization and Maintaining the Market, While Focusing on Originality of Iranian Carpet’.
Kargar said rugs made by Iran’s nomads as well as antique and modern carpets will be featured in the festival, adding those judged as top works will be put on display in a hall.
“A carpet is currently being woven in Iran based on a speech by [Iranian President] Hassan Rouhani in the United Nations which will be unveiled at the expo. The carpet will be presented as a gift to one of the international institutes after its weaving is completed.”
He said different methods for decorating spaces with handwoven Iranian carpets will also be presented to the visitors in the exhibition in cooperation with INCC and the National Council of Furniture and Decoration and Correlated Industries.
Kargar noted that to increase the adaptability of handwoven Iranian carpet, a book titled ‘Farsh Man — The Aesthetics of Persian Carpet’ will be unveiled in hall No. 5.
In addition, he said, a number of workshops will be held during the six-day exhibition, in the morning and afternoon, to familiarize visitors with the designing and production processes of Iranian carpets in different parts of the country.
The INCC head added moreover, the processes involved in the making of a handwoven carpet such as designing, restoration and washing will be demonstrated to visitors in this expo.
“Following the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) [on January 16, 2016], Iran resumed carpet exports to the US. During 2010-2016, Iran failed to directly export any carpet to the US due to [Western] sanctions. This was while in 2009, the US was the target of over 16 percent, or more than $80 million, of Iran’s carpet exports. After the implementation of the JCPOA, Iran exported its first carpet collection to the US from Germany.”
He added in 2016, Iran’s overseas sales of carpet amounted to $365 million, of which $95 million were sold to the US.
“We expect that Iran’s carpet exports to the US would increase again after a six-year hiatus. This, however, calls for continuous monitoring of the activities of our rivals, particularly India and Pakistan, in international carpet markets. It is also important to screen the background of our present-day customers in the market. We are also required to make optimum use of means of advertisement and establish connection with foreign traders.”
He said according to the figures released by Iran’s Customs Administration, the country’s carpet exports reached $89 million during March 21-July 22, 2017, indicating an increase of more than 3.7 percent compared to the figure for the same period last year.
Kargar added establishing a carpet start-up is also on INCC’s agenda.
“According to INCC statistics, there are one million carpet weavers in Iran, of whom 700,000 are full-time workers and the rest are part-time employees.
He dismissed allegations that handwoven Iranian carpets are expensive, noting such carpets have considerable price diversity.
Handwoven carpets made by Iran’s nomads are both very beautiful and precious and sold at reasonable prices.