Page 42 - IRANRptMay21

Centrist politician Hossein Marashi lately said during a meeting with Rouhani that the government could keep the country's economy going for at least 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
Iran ‘would need at least three months to get oil sales back to levels seen prior to sanctions’
Iran plans 30mn strategic oil reserve on Qeshm Island
Iran would need at least three months to flow back its crude in the global oil market to where it was under the 2015 nuclear deal, former oil minister Rostam Ghasemi said on April 21.
"The issue of oil is a complicated one," Ghasemi, who is involved in Iran's current oil sales, said on state television, as reported by S&P Global Platts. "It will not be possible in one day. It will definitely take its time to return to our production. Though the oil ministry has this capability to quickly return to the production. But at least it takes a three-month period, at least, for us to return to our exports."
Iran remains engaged in nuclear deal negotiations in Vienna that, if successful, would see the US remove sanctions designed to force down Iranian oil exports to as close to zero as possible.
However, even though these sanctions, introduced by former US president Donald Trump, remain in force, there is a widely held view on the oil markets that Iran perceives a lack of resolve from Biden administration officials to implement the sanctions and is exploiting the apparent situation to persuade oil buyers, particularly China, to take more of its crude in sanctions-busting transactions.
Reuters reported on April 22 that two assessments showed Iranian crude oil exports remain at elevated levels so far this month compared to last year. “Exports have continued at these elevated levels longer than we expected,” Petro-Logistics CEO Daniel Gerber was quoted as saying, adding: “And with constructive talks occurring in Vienna, we may never see a return to the 2020 lows.”
The oil industry is closely watching the level of Iran’s exports, which would impact the balance on the world market if they rose rapidly.
Iran plans to build a strategic oil reserve with a storage capacity of 30mn barrels on the Strait of Hormuz island of Qeshm as a buffer against the impact of sanctions, the CEO of the Iranian company in charge of the project has told IRNA.
Under the plan, 60 strategic petroleum reserves (SPRs), each with the capacity to store 500,000 barrels, would be built on the arrow-shaped island of
42 IRAN Country Report May 2021 www.intellinews.com