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reported on October 14.
Iran and Armenia are looking for more integration between their economies as the Iranians gradually move towards an initial free trade agreement with the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), the trade bloc which Yerevan is already signed up to. Armenia, which does not have diplomatic relations with neighbours Azerbaijan or Turkey, suffers from being shut out from the Turkey-Georgia-Azerbaijan trilateral cooperations, thus the small, impoverished nation of 2.9mn c onstantly looks for any business opportunities it can find with its big neighbour Iran , a country with a population of 80mn. Presiding board member of the Iranian parliament’s Planning and Budget Commission, Hadi Ghavami, reportedly said he held talks with Armenia on kickstarting the building of a joint refinery on the border with Armenia.
"By building a refinery on the border, both our countries will earn large amounts of revenue," Ghavami was quoted as saying, adding: “Under this agreement our country can sidestep [US] sanctions and open up a guaranteed market.”
Ghavami also stated: “Once we set up a refinery with a production capacity of 200,000 barrels annually at the Aras and Mogri free zones, Iran will have a guaranteed buyer, and Armenia will have a guaranteed supply.”
Iran presently barters gas with Armenia for electricity.
Located close to the southeastern town of Meghri, the MFEZ offers tax breaks to manufacturing, trade, cargo transport and tourism companies. Iran’s AFZ offers Iranian and foreign businesses a location from which they can access the Turkish, Armenian and Azerbaijani markets.
Iran's oil minister on October 8 scoffed at Saudi Arabia’s claims that it can replace Iranian oil shipments lost due to renewed US sanctions, saying they were exaggerations that the market would never believe. "Such exaggerations might please Mr Trump, but the market will never believe them," Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said, according to the oil ministry's SHANA news service. "These statements were made due to Mr Trump's pressure on Saudi authorities. The reality is that neither Saudi Arabia nor any other producer has such a capability," he added.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Bloomberg on October 5 that Saudi Arabia "did [its] job and more" by making up for the recent drop in Iranian oil sales.
He said Iran's sales had fallen by 700,000 barrels per day since the US announced in May that it was pulling out of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and reimposing heavy sanctions.
The Trump administration on October 5 confirmed it is actively considering “significant reduction exemption”, or SRE, waivers on a case-by-case basis for countries committed to winding down purchases of Iranian crude. That might indicate that the US government has become more wary that the planned embargo might feed through into higher oil prices that hit the American motorist.
9.1.2 Automotive sector news
The Iranian government is considering a plan to offer regular petrol at different prices to average and heavy users, Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting has reported.
During the two-term Ahmadinejad presidency which ran to 2013, petrol in Iran was rationed to car owners bearing smart cards. They were entitled to 60 litres at a reduced rate, while anything over that limit was more costly.
39 IRAN Country Report November 2018 www.intellinews.com