Page 51 - IRANRptOct22

Iran reports booming gas and oil export earnings
Iran makes new find, reiterates output expansion plans
information provided by Iranian oil ministry officials. Gazprom would be a partner in the liquefaction process required for the use of the LNG.
Iran would use the gas supplies from Russia to strengthen its domestic supply network, which suffers from gaps, particularly in the northwest of the country, officials reportedly briefed. To complete the swap, Iran would export increased amounts of gas to Turkey and Iraq through pipelines to the west, they were cited as also saying.
Iran already has gas swap agreements with Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan.
Iran and Russia have stepped up their trade and investment cooperation across several fields since Moscow was hit by heavy Western sanctions in the wake of its late February invasion of Ukraine. Prior to the sanctioning of Russia, Iran was the most heavily sanctioned country in the world. It is now the second most sanctioned.
Iran's gas export earnings for the first four months of the Persian calendar year (March 21 to July 21) reached nearly $4bn, the semi-official ISNA news agency quoted Oil Minister Javad Owji as saying on July 27. "We have collected close to $4 billion of gas exports for the first four months of the year, which is nearly as much as what was collected for the entire previous year," Owji was quoted as saying.
A day previously, economy minister Ehsan Khandouzi told a press briefing that the Islamic Republic’s income from oil and condensate exports in the first four months of the Iranian year was higher by 580% y/y.
"Due to the increase in oil exports and our new budget's currency conversion rate, we saw a 580% increase in the treasury's income from the export of oil and condensate in the first four months of this year," Khandouzi said.
The Iranian government says it has devised sanction-proofed ways to repatriate funds to the treasury from earlier energy exports, while officials claim to have boosted oil exports despite US sanctions still in place that Washington under former US president Donald Trump introduced saying the intention was to drive down Iranian crude exports to zero. The fact that China has remained a crucial market to Tehran for below-the-radar oil sales is well documented. Iran mainly exports gas to Turkey and Iraq. Sales to Iraq have been hampered by frequent rows over unpaid bills but ahead of the summer this year, Baghdad recommitted to paying off the debts and said it would switch to monthly payments to ensure more regular remuneration.
Iran is sometimes short of gas to export. Though it sits on the world’s second largest gas reserves, sanctions over the years have hindered the technological investments that would be required in Iranian gas fields to secure sufficient flows for domestic consumption demands and export ambitions.
Officials dealing with rising discontent and protests in Iranian society over economic hardship—annual inflation lately passed the 50% mark while the Iranian rial very much remains on the ropes—may hope some of the extra energy income will translate into rising prosperity among the population at large.
Iran reiterated plans to significantly increase its production capacities for oil and gas by the end of the decade. While the expansion plans are not new, the level of investment mentioned is, with the Russian commitment accounting for around a quarter of projected spending.
According to the official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), the National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC) has a seven-year investment plan that will allow oil production to rise to 5.7mn barrels per day, with that of gas rising to 1.5bn cubic metres per day, up from 3.8mn bpd and 1 bcm per day respectively by 2029.
51 IRAN Country Report October 2022 www.intellinews.com