Golestan National Park is one of Iran’s largest, oldest and finest national parks accommodating many species of plants and animals. Let’s take a look at the park on the occasion of World Animal Day./ Photo: Aboutaleb Nadri, MNA
Iran’s oil industry requires $100bn investment
Iran Oil minister has said contractor companies would only receive agreed amounts if they increase the recovery rate in Iranian oil fields.
Bijan Namdar Zanganeh told the press on Tuesday morning that at least $100bn in investment were required to revive the industry to fresh conditions where Iran’s excavation companies would provide services to other countries.
Zanganeh was speaking to the press on the sidelines of an agreement with Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC) to work on four massive oil fields as the first deal after reforms introduced to overall scheme of oil contracts.
Iran oil minister: “The industry currently requires $100bn in upstream section.”
“Iranian domestic companies would provide engineering services in oil and gas to other countries; a priority is also put upon improving the well recovery rate of Northern and Southern Yaran, Koupal, and Maroun,” Zanganeh added. “The industry currently requires $100bn in upstream section; we believe mergers and new offshoots of excavation and exploration companies would not weaken the mother holding, but would also attract investments and facilitate inflow of new technologies; the ultimate outcome would be improved and increased production and revival of antiquated oil wells.”
Zanganeh also said that development of South Azadegan oilfield was a priority post-JCPOA times; “currently, the recovery rate in Sarvak formations in shared field is mere 5 per cent, virtually rendering the remaining 95 per cent to other predators; other fields including Rag Sefid, Asmari, Koranj, Pakdel, Shadegan, etc., are in the queue for new contractors, with 600 billion barrels of crude in West Karoun massive field, and with only 150 billion barrels extractable with current recovery rates,” he detailed. /MNA
Iran, Germany sign 10 MoUs
A total of ten documents and agreements for joint cooperation were signed between Iran and Germany on Monday in Tehran.
The deals were sealed during the fifth Iran-Germany Joint Commission on Economic Cooperation on October 03 in the presence of German Vice Chancellor and Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel and Iranian Minister of Economic Affairs Ali Tayebnia.
The newly-signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) cover a wide range of areas for cooperation including project financing, mutual investment, joint ventures, banking and insurance cooperation, infrastructure in oil, gas and petrochemical sectors, renewable energy, railway, environment, roads and urban development, automotive, airlines and technology transfer.
Iran’s Tayebnia, in his remarks during the MoU signing ceremony, said the Islamic Republic of Iran and its private sector have always pursued the policy of strengthening economic ties with other countries and traditional partners, Germany in particular; “in the year 2008, the volume of trade turnover between Iran and Germany reached six billion dollars to turn Germans into Iran’s top trade partners among European Union member states.”
“The figure indicates the depth of economic relations between the two sides which were never interrupted even in the period of unfair sanctions against Iran thanks to the bond and friendship between the two nations,” he continued.
The Iranian economy minister further asserted “given that resumption of relations between Iran and Germany has been made possible in the wake of Iran’s successful negotiations with the 5+1, no effort should be spared in taking practical steps towards stronger collaboration in areas of common interest like investment, technology transfer, car manufacturing, oil, gas, renewable energies, aviation as well as financial and banking ties.” /MNA
An uptick in tourism of Iran
A handful of mostly European hotel groups are looking to steal a march on their US competitors by moving into the Iranian hospitality market while US companies still face regulatory uncertainty.
Most international sanctions related to Iran’s nuclear program were lifted at the start of this year. That sparked widespread interest among international companies in entering a country of 80 million.
Representatives of rapidly expanding US companies such as Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc., Marriott International Inc. and Choice Hotels International declined to comment.
Meanwhile, other companies are wasting no time. Abu Dhabi-based-Rotana Hotel Management Corp. PJSC, France’s Accor, Spain’s Meliá Hotels International and Germany’s Steigenberger Hotel Group are all moving quickly in anticipation of a tourism and business boom.
“We have been carefully watching the status of USA sanctions, the regulatory changes to those sanctions and we are evaluating the opportunities as a result of those changes,” said Alex Kyriakidis, president and managing director, Marriott International Middle East and Africa.
Iran’s economy is the second largest in the Middle East behind Saudi Arabia.
“Everybody is waiting for the international changes to come into effect – we are moving forward,” said Guy Hutchinson, the chief operating officer of Rotana. “We are going full steam ahead,” he said.
Rotana, which operates out of more than two dozen cities in emerging and often complicated markets such as Iraq and Sudan, has four properties under construction in Iran, the first one of which, a five-star hotel with 362 rooms, will open next year in the holy city of Mashhad.
Rotana can draw from its experience in other holy cities such as Mecca I Saudi Arabia and Karbala in Iraq, where targeting pilgrims as a major source of demand involves unique challenges, Hutchinson said. For example, more flexible check-in and checkout times might be needed to take into account the prayer times, he said.
“If you talk to US companies, they don’t necessarily have the same understanding in markets like this, virgin markets where there are specific challenges on how you operate,” said Hutchinson.
Frankfurt-based Steigenberger recently signed a letter of intent to open 10 hotels in Iran, while Meliá has a five-star property in the works on the shores of the Caspian Sea. Part of their optimism is fueled by Iran’s ambition to increase the number of visitors to 20 million by 2025 from around five million in 2015.
Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran’s hotel sector has been a local affair marked by the absence of international brands. Visitors to Tehran, whether for leisure or business, welcome top-end hotels.
“There’s not enough room for business travelers in Tehran,” said Maryam Kiaie, the international business development director for Rah Shahr, a major Iranian infrastructure firm. “We have business delegations postponing trips because of it.”
Kiaie estimates that Tehran needs 5,000 more high-grade hotel rooms. Hotels may be attractive for investors because they are easier to buy and upgrade than other property types.
“I think it’s a very safe sector to invest in,” Kiaie said. “It’s easier to get finance to build hotels, and there are many local investors who are interested in coming into a joint venture with foreign investors. It’s a good opportunity for hotel brands.”
A few of Tehran’s hotels market themselves as four- or five-star hotels but analysts say most of these wouldn’t receive the same classification by international standards. Room rates at the two Accor branches in Tehran range between $100 and $140 per night.
“Iran has some huge potential for growth because there is a lack in hotels both qualitatively and quantitatively,” said Christophe Landais, chief operating officer at Accor Hotels Iran. Paris-based Accor in the past year opened two properties, under the Ibis and Novotel brand, next to Tehran’s international airport. It is working on about 10 additional projects that will be located in Tehran and Mashhad.
Since opening its doors in Iran, Landais said the most positive feedback from clients he has received focused on Accor’s offering of free Wi-Fi and up to 40 international channels in the bedrooms – standard offerings in the West but more rare in existing Iranian hotels.
Hutchinson likened the present Iran situation to China before it became an economic powerhouse.
“It may take a little while until it fully opens and starts to move, but when it starts (it will go quickly),” he said./ Iran Daily
Iran offers 13-year tax break to hoteliers
Iran says it will offer a tax break of 13 years to hoteliers in what appears to be part of a policy devised to promote the country’s tourism industry.
“All economic activities related to… tourism will enjoy 100 percent tax holidays between five to 13 years depending on the region,” AFP quoted Iran’s Deputy Economy Minister Mohammad Khazaei as saying at an international tourism summit in Tehran.
Visitor numbers have already boomed in recent years, rising from 2.2 million annually in 2009 to 5.2 million in 2015, AFP added.
Iran has an ambitious target to increase annual visitor count by five folds to 20 million by 2025 in order to generate $30 billion a year. On the same front, the media reported last December that the country is constructing 125 new four- and five-star hotels.
This has already encouraged international hoteliers to devise plans to invest in Iran’s hotel industry. Hotel groups in the Persian Gulf Arab states are specifically believed to have already taken measures to boost their portfolios in Iran.
Hotel groups from Germany, Greece, South Korea and Singapore have also engaged in talks with officials in Tehran over hotel construction plans.
Europe’s largest hotel group Accor has also constructed two four-star hotels at Imam Khomeini International Airport outside the Iranian capital.
The UAE-based Rotana plans to open its five-star 600-room hotel in Tehran this year and another in the pilgrimage city of Mashhad.
Also, officials in Ankara announced in May that the country’s investors will be allowed to build at least 10 hotels in Iran. The hotels would be built in Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz, Tabriz and Mashhad.
Germany are looking to invest 3bn € in Iran
Iran says Germany is preparing to implement an action plan to invest €3 billion in different industries of the Islamic Republic.
Ali Majedi, Iran’s ambassador to Germany, said the investments will be made through a consortium comprising six German banks.
Majedi emphasized that the related agreements for this will be signed during the visit to Tehran by the German Vice Chancellor and Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel.
He added that Iran and Germany have over the past months devised fast track economic cooperation plans and that those plans include the development of power plants and generation of electricity.
A recent agreement that Germany’s Siemens signed with Iran’s MAPNA Group to transfer the technology of gas-powered turbines is an example of such plans, the Iranian envoy said.
Others, he added, concern producing electric and diesel locomotives as well as train cars and providing the signaling systems for Tehran-Isfahan – and probably Tehran-Mashhad – tracks.
Majedi further emphasized that Germany’s Volkswagen plans to transfer the technology to Iran to produce two of its models – what he said will be part of the same fast track plans devised by the two countries.
Gabriel is expected to arrive in Tehran on Sunday evening heading a major business delegation.
He has already announced that a German-Iranian business commission will meet for the first time in 15 years during his stay in the country, emphasizing that concrete business deals will also be announced.
The German minister was one of the first high-ranking foreign officials to visit Iran immediately after a series of economic sanctions against the country were lifted in January.
He canceled a scheduled trip to Iran to attend a meeting of Iran-Germany Economic Commission for the first time in 15 years early May, citing poor health. /Press TV
Iran, Germany sign deals to boost business relations+Photo
Germany and Iran have signed a range of business deals in what is expected to take economic relations between the two countries to a new level.
The German Economy Ministry announced in a statement that several Mittelstand firms, the small-to-medium-sized companies that form the backbone of the economy, had signed the deals with their Iranian partners during a landmark visit to Tehran by Vice Chancellor and Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel.
On the same front, Reuters reported that Mitsubishi Germany signed a contract to modernize a gas-fired plant, while plant constructor Keller HCW sealed an agreement to build a brickyard in Iran. Others that signed deals in Tehran included SMS group, a builder of steel making plants and INTRA industrial solutions, Reuters quoted the German Economy Ministry as announcing in its statement.
The central banks of Iran and Germany also agreed on technical co-operation, Reuters added. There was no detail on the size of the agreed deals.
Gabriel – who is heading a 160-strong business delegation to Tehran – had earlier emphasized that Germany wants to help Iran push ahead with reforms, and promised to remind the United States of its commitment to reduce sanctions against Iran.
This is Gabriel’s second visit to Iran since the country reached a deal in July last year to restrict certain aspects of its nuclear energy activities in return for the removal of some economic sanctions that had been imposed on it for several years.
Industrial giant Siemens AG and automaker Daimler AG are expected to be the first German firms to benefit from opportunities in Iran after the removal of the sanctions, Reuters said. Nevertheless, they are proceeding carefully and only after legal reviews.
Iran sales 1mb oil to British companies
An official at NIOC said Iran has begun crude sales to British companies as the first one-million-barrel shipment was delivered to British Petroleum.
Seyyed Mohsen Ghamsari touched upon resumption of oil exports to British firms in the post-JCPOA era saying “so far, two crude oil and gas condensate cargos have been sold to two companies in the UK.”
Executive director for international affairs at National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) emphasized that the two cargos have been exported to Britain under single-shipment contracts; “negotiations are still in progress with companies like Shell or BP to ink long-term oil sale agreements.”
The official further stressed that a single cargo of gas condensate has been recently sold to BP asserting “under the spot contract, one million barrels of Iranian gas condensate were delivered to the British company.”
“Talks have also begun with Royal Dutch Shell Oil industry company over long-term sales of crude oil though no final agreement has been reached yet,” stated Ghamsari.
He recalled that mechanism and volume of oil sales within long-term deals are still being negotiated with Shell; “NIOC will continue negotiations with the British firm in order to finalize the contracts.”
In July, Shell imported 130,000 tons of Iranian crude from Kharg Island on 8 July to continental Europe with the destination being Rotterdam of the Netherlands.
Iran’s NIOC had earlier subjected new orders by Shell to clearing its debts for previous purchases and it was in April that the Iranian company confirmed clearance of the 2.8-billion-dollar debt by the Anglo-Dutch company.
Earlier this year, Ghamsari had maintained that Shell owns refineries or shares of refineries in various world countries adding “the possibility exists for Shell to transfer a portion of the purchased crude to Germany.”/MNA
Iran able to achieve target of 4m bpd oil output
Managing Director of National Iranian Oil Company Ali Kardor said on Monday that NIOC has been able to achieve the target of four million bpd output in the wake of lifting the sanctions.
He made the remarks in his speech to a group of the Petroleum Ministry officials.
Kardor said that Iran has been able to maintain its 14 percent quota in OPEC.
Let’s not forget that the rivals go on pumping oil and gas quickly, so Iran should not lag behind in producing oil and gas, Kardor said.
He said that Iran has also been able to raise its oil selling capacity to four million barrels.
‘Our oil production capacity should reach 5.2 or 5.7 million bpd.’
Kardor said Iran has over the past 11 years, embarked on horizontal drilling in South Pars layer for three times and only 700 meters were drilled due to lack of necessary technology. ‘Qatar, however, drilled 12 kms in joint oil layer horizontally and exploited 340,000 bpd oil.’
‘We should update our technology and regain our rights in the joint fields; Any claim that incentives will be given to the foreign executives is wrong. We do not accept it at all because as far as oil contracts are concerned, we will notify the foreign contractors of all our terms and conditions. Now, we should do something to make other countries dependent on us because a country like Saudi Arabia has a close watch on Iranian oil talks and contracts with other countries. Also, Saudi officials give highest amount of discount to foreign customers in a bid to create problems to Iranian oil industry. We should take back our part in the oil industry and support our oil and gas development with all might because we are progressive in economy. We have been able to improve the country’s economic growth with that amount of oil exports. The new model of oil contracts gives less than 8.2 percent share to foreigners and the remaining 92 percent of the privileges belongs to Iran government.’
Iran’s Lake Urmia turns Red+ Photo
PThe Lake Urmia in Iran’s West Azarbaijan province turned red as the result of an environmental phenomenon known as the “red tide”, that is actually the result of an algal bloom, an event in which marine or fresh water algae accumulate rapidly in the water. It produces oxygen radicals which can damage fish gills, possibly leading to suffocation.
Photo: Isna
