Page 42 - IRANRptSep21

another year by collecting everyone's FX and gold by issuing "oil shares" that would be redeemed in three years.
The same plan was put forward in 2012 under the Ahmadinejad administration when sanctions against Iran's oil industry began to be enforced. But it was never put into action.
There has to be serious doubt that enough citizens would risk their hard currency and gold savings in oil transaction investments given the deep uncertainties facing the Iranian oil industry in the years ahead.
9.0 Industry & Sectors 9.1 Sector news
9.1.1 Oil & gas sector news
Iranian oil production up year on year
Iran ‘restarts fuel exports to Afghanistan after messages from Taliban’
Iran’s crude oil production rose 37% during the first five months of the current Iranian calendar year compared to March 21-August 20 of last year.
State-run media quoted secondary OPEC data sources showing that output had risen from 1.9mn barrels per day to 2.5mn bpd.
The figure marks a sizeable rebound following a major fall-off since 2017, when production ran at 3.9mn bpd, dropping to 3.5mn bpd in 2018, 2.4mn bpd in 2019 and 2mn bpd in 2020 in the wake of the US’s withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
The National Iranian Oil Co.’s (NIOC) output increase has been partially facilitated by recent work to raise capacity at the West Karoun oilfield cluster, which comprises North and South Azadegan, North and South Yaran and Yadavaran.
Together, the group are estimated to contain at least 67bn barrels of oil in place (OIP), but the average recovery rate across West Karoun is just 5-6% with combined production from the fields currently running at 420,000 bpd. Output has risen from just 70,000 bpd in 2013 and Tehran believes that by increasing recovery across these fields they can achieve 1.2mn bpd of combined output.
The broader average crude recovery rate across Iranian fields is roughly 24%, against a global rate of around 35%.
Iran reportedly restarted fuel exports to Afghanistan a few days ago following a request from the emerging Taliban government.
The Taliban feel empowered by the US withdrawal from Afghanistan to buy Washington-sanctioned Iran’s oil more openly, Reuters on August 23 reported an Iranian official as saying.
The price of gasoline in Afghanistan reached $900 per tonne as many Afghans drove out of cities, fearing a return to the harsh regime run under Sharia Law that the Sunni Muslim Taliban imposed when they were last in power two decades ago. To counter the price spike, the Taliban, it is said, asked Shi'ite Muslim Iran to keep the borders open for traders.
"The Taliban sent messages to Iran saying 'you can continue the exports of petroleum products'," Hamid Hosseini, board member and spokesperson of Iran's Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters' Union, in Tehran, told
42 IRAN Country Report September 2021 www.intellinews.com