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Minister says Iran’s natural gas production at record high despite sanctions that drove away foreign investors
"Since the beginning of the current Iranian year [the year began on March 21, 2020] five petrochemical projects from investments of $3bn have been inaugurated by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani," Zangeneh noted.
He then referred to 19 petrochemical projects coming on stream in a second phase with a value of $11.4bn and combined capacity of 25mn tonnes/yr but did not specify a time frame for that phase.
Iran's natural gas production has reached a record high even as US sanctions caused major international exploration companies to scale back their activities in the Islamic Republic, S&P Global Platts reported on February 7.
Production hit a record of 1.04 bcm/d, Iran's oil minister Bijan Zanganeh was reported as saying on the sidelines of a petrochemicals conference in Tehran. Iran in April last year officially began the long-delayed development of phase 11 of the giant South Pars gas field. Output in early 2020 was 670mn cm/d. Phase 11 is the last of the 24 phases in the massive offshore gas field, shared with Qatar, to go under development. It is anticipated that it will produce 56mn cu m/d of gas.
National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC), meanwhile, is set to invest €25mn to form a direct gas pipeline connection with the southern Iranian island of Qeshm in the Strait of Hormuz with the Iranian mainland, IRNA reported on February 8.
The 59-kilometre pipeline will connect to the Direstan terminal on Qeshm, a free trade zone.
9.1.2 Automotive sector news
Iran’s car production up 4% y/y despite sanctions and Covid
Iran’s central bank to inject 150 trillion into troubled auto producers
Iran’s car output expanded in the last Persian year (ended March 20) despite targeted US sanctions and the coronavirus crisis hitting the local automotive industry. The country produced 900,714 cars, marking a 4.3% y/y gain.
The official data did not appear to include light commercial vehicles (LCVs). Tariffs on imported cars, which can run to more than 100% for luxury models, help to defend the industry. Two beneficiaries are Iran Khodro (IKCO) and SAIPA, which in the 2020/2021 Persian year were again Iran’s biggest automakers, with Pars Khodro in third place. IKCO produced 480,338 cars, enjoying growth of 21.97% y/y. SAIPA assembled 317,321 cars, suffering a 12.67% y/y decline. Pars Khodro’s output fell to 103,055 cars, down 2.84% y/y. Locally made Peugeot models traditionally dominate car assembly in Iran. Some 346,575 such cars were assembled in the Islamic Republic during the year in question. IKCO, meanwhile, turned out 55,220 own-brand Samand sedans.
As in previous years of late, the low-cost Tiba and old Pride model were the two most popular vehicles produced by SAIPA, at 236,939 and 50,413 units, respectively.
At the beginning of the calendar year, the Rouhani administration targeted the annual production of 1.3mn vehicles. The coronavirus crisis hindered attempts at achieving that threshold partly because it cramped flows of imported components.
Central Bank of Iran (CBI) governor Abdul Nasser Hemmati has said that the national lender plans to inject Iranian rial (IRR) 150 trillion ($607.3mn at the free market rate, $3.6bn at the official rate) in loans into local auto producers Iran Khodro (IKCO) and SAIPA to stem losses they have
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