Page 36 - IRANRptJul18

Reuters. Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said the refinery, once fully operational, would produce 36mn litres of petrol per day.
"With the refinery becoming fully operational, we will have no concerns over sanctions," he told the Iranian oil ministry-controlled SHANA energy news agency.
The presidents of Iran and Azerbaijan have signed protocols for the development of a jointly owned deepwater oil field in the Caspian Sea, official Iranian energy news agency SHANA reported on June 19.
Despite having warm relations, the two countries rarely work together in the oil sector and often compete in relation to fields located near each other. However, despite this competitive background, cutting costs via a joint exploration has been on the cards for a while.
If the deal is ratified, the two countries would recover the oil on a 50/50 basis. Khazar (Caspian) Exploration and Production Co. (KEPCO) would run Iran’s side of the contract if it goes ahead.
KEPCO director Mohsen Delaviz said of the deal that “various options are under review”, including the formation of a joint venture between KEPCO and Azerbaijani national oil company Socar, which might attract further investment from third parties that would be used to accelerate project delivery.
He added that the development of the proposed field could cost around $10bn. Finalising a joint-venture deal with Socar might take up to two years, while another few years would be needed to get the project under way, Delaviz added. If everything ran smoothly, the field could thus be in operation in seven years, he said.
Iran’s oil exports fell sharply in the first two weeks of June, perhaps showing that the re-imposition of sanctions by the US may be discouraging some buyers. Outflows of crude oil and condensate sank by 16% to 2.114mn barrels a day during the first two weeks of June, compared with the same period in May. That amounted to the biggest like-for-like drop since December 2016, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg and released on June 15. A prolonged decline in exports would worry Iran’s government given its dependence on crude sales revenues.
Iranian oil minister said on June 12 that the Islamic Republic plans to push up its oil production by 460mn barrels over three years.
Prior to Donald Trump unilaterally pulling Washington out of the multilateral deal, Iran was working on plans to award around $200bn of investment contracts for the development of its oil, gas and petrochemical industries. Such a target is now almost certainly entirely unrealistic with foreign companies unwilling to do business with Iran given the threat of secondary sanctions from the US, but oil minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh told Iran Student News Agency of a plan to focus on increasing output at 29 oilfields including Ilam, Khuzestan, Gachsaran, Falat Qareh and Fars in the south of the country.
He emphasised that as many foreign companies were looking to pull out of the Iranian market, Iranian companies were being lined up to take their place. “More than 75% of the equipment for developing the output is Iranian,” Zanganeh reportedly added.
The news of Iran switching to a more inward-looking economy came as an international consortium led by UK-based Pergas Resources International said it had no intention of leaving the Iranian market and would, in fact, adopt a strategy of mopping up contracts left by competitors who were exiting the country. The consortium, which includes 11 European, Canadian, and Asian companies, has started discussing its plans following the May 16 signing by
36 IRAN Country Report July 2018 www.intellinews.com