Oil prices started the year at $60-per-barrel range, almost cut by half from $115-a-barrel high in June last year. The woeful run continued all the way through the yearend as Brent, the global crude benchmark, sank to $36 per barrel in December, a level last seen in 2004.
Iran’s energy sector had a relatively quiet stint during the first half of 2015, as the country started to feel the pinch of falling oil prices while patiently waiting for a much-coveted nuclear agreement to lift decades-old sanctions that had weighed heavily on the energy sector.
But the historic nuclear accord in July between Iran and six world powers (the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany) drastically changed the course of the year and set a second-half rebound with hope and enthusiasm.
The prospect of an end to financial and trade restrictions against Iran prompted many European and Asian countries to rekindle negotiations with and send delegations to Tehran to secure a place in the country’s promising post-sanctions energy market.
Financial Tribune takes a close look at the most important developments in the country’s energy sector over the past 12 months with a special focus on major international energy events.

Influx of Internationals
The nuclear agreement was quickly followed by the arrival of major international missions in the Iranian heartland, with several customers of Iranian crude stepping forward to settle oil debts.
In August, Iran and Italy held negotiations to restore ties in oil, gas and petrochemical sectors. Senior executives, including Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi, were among the hundreds of representatives who joined Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni on their August visit to Tehran.
In September, Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh and Spain’s Minister of Industry, Energy and Tourism Manuel Soria discussed liquefied natural gas supply to Spanish terminals, and from there, to other European destinations in a meeting in Tehran.
Zanganeh met Rainer Seele, CEO of Austrian oil and gas company OMV the same day, and explored the prospect of boosting extraction from Iran’s rich oil and gas fields using OMV technology and equipment.
South Korea’s electricity giant KEPCO and major automaker Hyundai announced plans to set up joint ventures in the fields of electricity generation, transmission and distribution in Iran.
A consortium of 250 Spanish companies visited Tehran in September and announced plans to invest in Iran’s petrochemical sector.
Zanganeh discussed oil export to Poland as well as underground gas storage and energy consumption efficiency techniques in a meeting with Janusz Piechocinski, the country’s deputy prime minister and economy minister.
Senior executives of the British oil and gas major BP also held closed-door talks with Iranian energy officials in September. The low-profile talks were followed by the first visit of a UK delegation to Tehran in over a decade to discuss grounds for economic and energy cooperation.
Later that month, energy companies Total and Engie, as part of a high-ranking delegation of French officials and business-owners from 150 companies, tested the waters for resuming business in Iran.
In October, Iranian officials explored areas of cooperation in the energy industry, particularly the renewables sector, in a meeting with a high-ranking delegation from the northwestern German state of Lower Saxony.
Meanwhile, Tehran strengthened energy ties with Moscow, its longtime economic partner, during back-to-back visits of Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak to Tehran in October and November.
The two sides pledged to raise annual bilateral trade to $40 billion, with Russia signing a deal to build a 1,400-megawatt thermal power plant in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas.

Gas Deal With Baghdad
Tehran and Baghdad finalized a gas export contract in mid-November, based on which, Iran will supply 20-35 million cubic meters of gas per day to three power plants in the southern Iraqi city of Basra near the Iranian border. The volume will reach 45-60 mcm/d, once gas supply to Baghdad goes underway.
Gas supply to Basra was speculated to begin in 18 months, with export to the Iraqi capital expected by early 2016. The two sides extended the term of the contract from four to six years.
Officials have been tightlipped about the financial terms of the contract. The two sides signed a draft deal in 2013, which is estimated to be worth $4 billion to $6 billion. Gas supply to Iraq is estimated to total 40 billion cubic meters over six years.

Signaling the World
Nine heads of state from the Gas Exporting Countries Forum gathered in Tehran for the Third GECF Summit on Nov. 23 in a strong message that Tehran is ready to reach out to the international community and play a bigger role in the global natural gas market after the lifting of sanctions.
The summit was attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin who had last visited Tehran in 2007, Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ Secretary-General Abdalla Salem el-Badri and his International Energy Forum counterpart Aldo Flores-Quiroga, among other prominent figures.
In his address at the Third GECF Summit, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani declared that the country’s gas production capacity will top 1 billion cubic meters per day in two years and will reach 1.2 billion cubic meters a day by 2020.
Zanganeh also said Iran and Russia ‘can establish long-lasting ties in the oil and gas sector in the post-sanctions period’.
Established in Tehran in 2001, GECF is an intergovernmental organization of 11 of the world’s leading natural gas producers, namely Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela.

IPC Unveiling
After years of speculations and months of buildup, the Iranian government unveiled its long-anticipated contractual framework, known as Iran Petroleum Contract, to attract multibillion dollars in foreign direct investment after the sanctions removal.
The country unveiled 52 oil and natural gas projects worth an estimated $185 billion in the two-day conference that brought together more than 1,300 officials and representatives from 335 domestic and foreign companies in Tehran. The convention was held a week after the GECF summit.
IPC offers more flexible terms on oil price fluctuations and investment risks, and is seen as an improvement over the so-called buyback contracts that were in place for the past 20 years.
Zanganeh said that the IPC conference would be successful, if the new oil and gas projects attract $25 billion in foreign finance.
Oil and gas majors, including Total, Lukoil, Rosneft, Eni, Sinopec, Statoil, Petrobras, Royal Dutch Shell and BP, attended the two-day event in Tehran in the absence of American companies barred by the US administration from conducting business with the Persian Gulf country.
A second conference is scheduled to be held in London on February 22-24 for a thorough presentation of the multibillion-dollar oil and gas projects.

Petrochemical Gathering
Iran announced ambitions to attract $70 billion in petrochemical investment in a December conference in Tehran.
The 12th Iran Petrochemical Forum was attended by tens of high-profile international companies from Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan and China, among others.
Iranian officials underlined inexpensive energy prices, tax exemptions in energy zones and a 78-million-strong market as incentives for attracting multinationals to invest in the country’s petrochemical projects.
‘The IPF will boost relations between Iranian and foreign companies and the transfer of knowhow,’ Zanganeh said on the sidelines of the event.
Nominal production capacity currently stands at 60 million tons a year, but plans call for doubling the volume by 2021 and raising the output to an ambitious 180 million tons a year by 2025.
Iran sits on one of the world’s largest oil and natural gas reserves, holding 158 billion barrels of proven oil reserves and 34 trillion cubic meters of gas reserves.

A Summit of Disappointments
OPEC has been pumping at record rates, often exceeding its 30 million barrels a day production ceiling. The group’s last summit of the year on Dec. 4 was a last-ditch attempt to agree on cutting output to help lift prices.
But any such hopes faded as the meeting ended in acrimony with no mention of a new production ceiling in OPEC’s final statement. The last time OPEC failed to reach a deal was in 2011 when Saudi Arabia was pushing the group to increase output to avoid a price spike amid a Libyan uprising.
At present, Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s top exporter, is leading the pump-at-any-price bandwagon to drive high-cost producers such as US shale firms out of the market. But the self-damaging policy is also aimed at debilitating Iran and non-OPEC producer Russia who rely heavily on oil revenues.
Iranian officials have reiterated over the past few months the country will regain the market share it lost to rival producers such as Saudi Arabia and Iraq, and match its pre-sanctions output levels by raising production by 500,000 bpd within a week of the lifting of sanctions and by 1 million barrels within the following months.

US Export Ban
The United States lifted a 40-year ban on oil exports on Dec. 18, a major U-turn in the country’s energy policy that sent ripples through the markets.
However, American crude producers may not be willing to export oil if the price stays low. If a barrel is more expensive to produce than the market price, it is more likely that US oil companies will slow production and keep it on the domestic market.
The ban was first imposed in 1975 as the US was reeling from the 1973-74 Arab oil embargo, which dealt a heavy shock to the US economy and sent global prices shooting up.
OPEC’s Arab members had banned oil exports to the US in retaliation for Washington’s support of Israel during the Arab-Israeli war.

Eligible for participation are projects with a focus on saving resources, improving air, soil, or water quality, increasing energy efficiency, using renewables, as well as anyone making a contribution towards the fight against climate change.
With the largest wastewater treatment plant in the Middle East, Iran is listed among 15 finalists such as Demark, Australia, Canada, Ethiopia, Nepal, Switzerland, and etc. which are competing against each other in the five categories of earth, fire, water, air, and youth.
Iran’s rivals in the category of water are China and United Republic of Tanzania.
On January 19, Tehran will be the stage for the best environmental projects. It is a memorable event since this awarding ceremony will be the first worldwide TV broadcast after the lifting of sanctions.
This year, more than 177 national winners have already been awarded, and more than 80 of them have announced their coming to Tehran.
Wolfgang Neumann, the CEO of the Energy Globe Foundation, expressed happiness over Iran’s nomination along with 14 other finalists.
Neumann made the remarks during a visit to Tehran’s sewerage treatment plant, Tehran Times reported.
He additionally thanked Iran’s cooperation to sustainable energies projects, adding that Tehran’s sewerage project is pretty effective in preventing air pollution, generating energy, and promoting agriculture.
The Energy Globe Award was founded in 1999 by the Austrian energy pioneer Neumann and is one of today’s most prestigious environmental awards. Projects submitted from over 170 countries take part each year in the awards.
Goal of the Award is to present successful sustainable projects for many of our environmental problems. By audience and/or online voting the Energy Globe World Award winner is selected from among the five category winners. The 1st prize in each category is endowed with 10,000 euro cash award.

Zangeneh told IRNA that the price suggested for each barrel of oil told be sold next year will depend on fluctuations in the market.
To a question on further decline in price of oil and selling it for less than 40 dollars a barrel, he said, “We cannot send bad signals to the market before hand; there had been efforts to suggest in the budget the closest and most possible price for oil, though the market is usually in fluctuations.”
He noted that in the first half of the year, Iranian oil was sold for 54 dollars a barrel on the average and the exports was a little a bit higher than the figure forecast in the budget.
He said government has no plan to liberalize the price for oil derivatives.
Elsewhere in the interview, Zangeneh said OPEC emergency meeting, to be held due to fall in the prices, would be harmful to the market before holding emergency session, leading to further decline in the prices.

The CBI data released on Monday show the volume of foreign trade shrank by some $10 billion in the Q1 to halt at $30.582 billion from 40.302 in the same period last year, Tasim news agency reported.
$10.633 billion out of the country’s $17.68 billion exports came from foreign sales of oil and related products such as natural gas and gas condensates. The figure for the same period last year was $17.508 billion, which shows a drop of some seven billion dollars in oil revenues.
The drop comes amid a languishing oil slump on the global market, coupled with anti-Iran sanctions that await removal sometime next month following Tehran’s July agreement with permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany over Iranian nuclear activities.
Iranian media reported on Saturday that the price of the country’s heavy crude oil had plunged to below $30 per barrel for the first time in almost 20 years.
Iran is preparing to raise output by 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) once sanctions are lifted in order to boost market share. Once OPEC’s second biggest exporter, Iran saw its crude sales more than halve to around one million bpd after 2011.
Latest CBI figures, though, put the Q1 oil production at 3.093 million barrels – a 2.6% rise from the same period last year. Yet, crude exports were trimmed down to 1.422 million bpd, which translates into a decline of 0.4% compared to the same period last year.
Foreign Debt
The Central Bank of Iran also said foreign debts experienced a hike of 376 million dollars in the first quarter of the Iranian calendar year to reach $5.484.
The number was $5.108 billion in the same period last year.
The Central Bank also put the unemployment rate in the nation of 78.8 million at 10.8%.
Iran has over the past few years made significant efforts to boost its economy through different measures.
Officials have on occasions spoken of plans to attract some USD 70 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) only in petrochemical sectors by 2025.
Also, Iran’s Petroleum Ministry recently unveiled new contracts with better incentives than the previous buy-back deal in order to lure foreign investors.

Mehdi Yousefi said since Rouhani took office in 2013, the country has raised its gas output by nearly 100mcm every year as the country is boosting natural gas recovery from the supergiant South Pars gas field which is shares with Qatar in Persian Gulf Waters.
He said Iran currently produces 0.5bcm of gas from the gas field from 0.3bcm in 2013, Shana reported.
Yousefi added that PSEEZ accounts for nearly 40% of Iran’s non-oil exports while sanctions have been in place.
He further said that phases 15 and 16 of the gas field are about to be officially inaugurated and phases 17 and 18 of South Pars has gained 80% progress.
Iran will earn 20 million dollars a day once phases 15 and 16 of the supergiant South Pars gas field.
The phase developments are the most Iranian phases of the gas field and will be presently inaugurated.
The phases have for far produced over 15.5 bcm of natural gas, 14 million barrels of gas condensate, 3,000 tons of sulfur and over 5,000 tons of ethane.
The gas produced from the phases has also fetched Iran more than $4.5b in revenues.
The phases are complete and the date for their official inauguration is yet to be announced.
Phases 15&16 of South Pars are under development for the production of 56.6 mcm/d of natural gas, 75,000 b/d of gas condensate, 400 tons a day of sulfur, 1.05 million tons a year of liquefied petroleum gas and one million tons a year of ethane.
South Pars, which is jointly operated by Iran and Qatar, supplies 72% of Iran’s daily gas needs.

Director General of the company’s department in charge of petrochemical affairs Heideki Konishi said Iran’s economic specifications in terms of human and natural resources makes it different from any of its rivals.

He said his company has places no limits in cooperating with Iran in petrochemical projects.

Noting that Mitsubishi is already in cooperation with Iran in various areas especially the private sector, the Japanese official expressed hope that his company could play a remarkable role in promoting the petrochemical industry activities here which already enjoys a bright global prospect.

According to Konishi, Mitsubishi is presently active in 90 world countries in a wide range of activities from natural resources to small-scale industries, recruiting a workforce of 65,000 from different nationalities.

He said Iran enjoyed a very skilled work force which would facilitate development process in the country

The establishment of a spot market for LNG has further given potential for the development of this industry.

Worth mentioning is that today we are witness to weather anomalies all over the world. Such abnormal weather condition is blamed on the effects of CO2 emissions on climate change, the effects of which we see today in North and South Americas, Europe and other parts of the world.

On a micro scale pollution is blamed on inefficient modes of transportation and overcrowded cities, like Tehran and other mega cities.

Before delving in the advancements and strives made by the Islamic Republic on its quest for LNG technology, let’s have a look at what some other countries are doing and their present status:

WIND-LNG POWERED CARGO FREIGHTERS:

Today international shipping is transporting 90 percent of all goods on earth. Cargo freighters run on heavy fuel oil and contribute heavily to pollution. To make ships more eco-efficient, engineers have been working with alternative fuels.

A Norwegian engineer, Terje Lade, is currently pursuing a new approach with a ship called VindskipTM, which translates to windship. Lade has designed a cargo ship (see photo) that is powered by wind and gas.

Software for the cargo freighter is developed by Fraunhofer to optimize available wind at any time. The software was handed over to the company Lade AS in mid 2015.

‘With our weather ro0.uting module the best route can be calculated in order to minimize fuel consumption,’ said Laura Walther, researcher for the software at CML in Hamburg.

‘After all bunker expenses account for the largest part of the total costs in the shipping industry,’ added Walther.

Due to its low consumption the vessel can utilize LNG as fuel to be capable — in the worse case — of 70 days of steaming between bunkering.

The cargo freighter is able to travel as fast as conventionally powered ships, i.e. 18-19 knots.

JORDAN’S FIRST LNG TERMINAL AT AL AQABA:

Jordan’s first LNG terminal started importing LNG earlier this year via Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU) Golar Eskimo. The operational FRSU projects are based on conversion of an existing LNG career.

The company behind this project, FSRU is the world’s largest independent owners and operators of LNG carriers with over 30 years of experience. The company is planning to grow its business further upstream with the development of Floating Liquified Natural Gas (FLNG).

Early December due to winds Golar Eskimo had to be moved away from the jetty causing disruption of gas supplies to National Electric Power Company of Jordan (NEPCO). As a result of bad weather there was a disruption of electricity supply.

Being connected to the national gas grid, FRSU delivers fuel to power plants through out Jordan and also to the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding (EGAS) via pipeline.

NEPCO informed last week (before Christmas) al Aqsa LNG terminal was operating in full capacity. The terminal has a capacity to store 160,000 cm of LNG and delivering up to 500 mcmfscd with a peaking capacity of 700 mnfsc.

QATAR LNG HEADING TO BELGIUM:

Qatar has been the world’s largest exporter of LNG since 2006, with 31 percent of global market share in 2014. However, now it’s LNG production has plateaued and could even begin to decline. The country has put a moratorium on some of its fields.

The Al Marrouna LNG Tanker (built 2006 with a capacity of 151,700 cm) departed from Qatar Port of Ras Laffan on Dec. 24 and expected to make delivery in Belgium’s new terminal in Zeebrugge on January 12, after an 18 day journey.

Zeebrugge, mainly LNG port, has an annual thoroughput capacity of 9bcm of natural gas.

INDIA’S KOCHI LNG TERMINAL AWAITS QATARI CARGO:

Kochi LNG regasification terminal is located in Special Economic Zone of Puthuvypeen near the entrance to Cochin Port. It was constructed and commissioned in August, 2013.

The terminal has been developed by Petronet LNG having the capacity to store and distribute 5-million tons of natural gas per annum.

The jetty is designed to receive LNG tankers between 65,000-216,000 cubic meters and contains two LNG storage tanks each with a capacity of 155,000 cbm.

FRENCH FIRM TO PROVIDE LNG VESSEL BUILDING TECHNOLOGY TO INDIA:

Cochin Shipyard Ltd. has signed an MoU with Gaztransport & Technigaz (GTT), a world leader in design and engineering of containment systems for maritime transportation and storage of LNG.

The shipyard in India is the first to be licensed by GTT which holds patent technology for building LNG ships. No Indian shipyard has made LNG career yet, which costs over $200 million.

In scope with an energy transition towards a cleaner energy, such as LNG, India will need careers with latest technology.

The IranOilGas Network reported that India is willing to take stake in ‘Iran LNG’ project. The LNG terminal is based at Tombak Port, approximately 50 kilometers north of Assaluyeh Port will be equipped with storage and loading facilities.

PETROCHINA’S TERMINAL RECEIVES 1ST LNG CARGO:

PetroChina’s Dalian LNG receiving terminal, its second and China’s fifth, received its first LNG cargo on Dec. 23, reports Reuters.

Dalian LNG terminal is located in northwestern Leaoning Province and China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) is its parent company. According to the reports Dalian will mainly take LNG from Qatar, Australia and Iran.

PetroChina started in May its first LNG terminal in east China’s Jiangsu province.

EGYPT LATE WITH LNG PAYMENTS:

Reuters reported that Egypt has asked LNG suppliers to extend the term another 90 days after a delay in the payment of $350 million in debt. According to existing arrangements, Egypt is obliged to pay for LNG imports 15 days after a cargo unloads.

Egypt imports around six to eight cargoes of LNG per month, valued at around $20 million to $25 million per cargo, reports Reuters.

Its suppliers include BP, Shell, Gas Natural, Trafigura, Vitol, EDF Trading, PetroChina and Noble.

The second LNG terminal was recently inaugurated. It was sent by Singapore-based Norwegian group BW Gas, has a capacity of 600 to 700 million cubic feet per day.

Egypt has emerged as a major new market for LNG as the government looks to ease the worst energy crunch in decades.

At their peak, oil revenues have caused an outbreak of virulent economic maladies, including stagflation and the Dutch disease – a situation when a sudden flush of petrodollars has led to a decline in manufacturing and agriculture.
The worst situation in case was former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s tenure when an oil windfall of about $800 billion left Iran saddled with an inflation rate of over 40% and a tattered economy.
With lower oil prices and revenues, meanwhile, the government has had to struggle for funding development projects and paying its huge army of employees in a country where much of industries and businesses is state-owned.
In recent months, a growing supply glut has sent oil prices into a tailspin, with Iranian crudes currently averaging in the $20-30 range.
On Sunday, local media said the government of President Hassan Rouhani had drafted the budget for the new fiscal year on the basis of $35 a barrel. Government officials say they have cut the country’s dependence on oil to a third of what it used to be to around 31.5%.
Deputy Industry, Mine and Trade Minister Mojtaba Khosrotaj said Iran’s oil revenues in the new year are estimated to total $14 billion if the government’s bid to increase exports by 500,000 barrels per day realizes.
That is a huge climb-down from record annual revenues of $100 billion which came during some of Ahmadinejad’s years in office.
Hopes set on mining
The mining sector is being groomed as Iran’s favorite to move away from the oil-based economy.
As part of the 2025 Outlook initiative, Iran plans to expand domestic value-adding activities by focusing on downstream projects to enhance sustainable development.
Last month, Khosrotaj said Iran has potential to generate more revenue from mining than it does from crude.
Another official said Iran possesses 7% of the world’s total mineral reserves worth about $700 billion, which could rise to $1.4 trillion with new discoveries – a figure which roughly equals Iran’s total oil revenues so far.
The country is ranked the world’s 15th with more than 27 billion tonnes of explored reserves and 57 billion tonnes of potential reserves.
According to head of Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation (IMIDRO) Mehdi Karbasian, Iran plans to attract over $20 billion of foreign investment in mining and downstream industries.
US growth partnership company Frost & Sullivan said in a report released on Friday that Iran’s mining industry value chain requires new investments of approximately $60 billion.
Currently, the mining sector accounts for less than 1% of Iran’s total GDP and relevant downstream industries do not exceed 5%. The target is to increase this share to more than 2% and 20% respectively within the next ten years.
“The boom in the mining sector will help the Iranian Government reduce the unemployment rate and raise non-oil revenues significantly,” said Ali Mirmohammad, senior consultant and business development manager – Iran, Frost & Sullivan.

According to a report published online on the LA Times website, Iran’s rising appeal among US travelers has prompted several tour operators to offer Iran tours.

The paper writes visiting Iran is easier than visiting Cuba, “in terms of US government red tape.”

Pointing to Iran’s plethora of historic towers, mosques and squares, the report singles out Isfahan, Shiraz and Persepolis, which “holds some of the most striking pre-Christian ruins outside of Egypt and Peru” as must-see places, CHN wrote.

The appeal of the aforementioned destinations is enhanced by their safe distance from border regions, especially Iraq and Afghanistan, which the US State Department urges travelers to avoid.

Quoting Janet Moore, owner of the travel agency Distant Horizons, the article reports that the agency is sending 14 groups to Iran in 2016 – twice the number sent in 2014.

According to Ebrahim Pourfaraj, the head of Iranian Tour Operators’ Association, demand to visit Iran is particularly high among educated Americans, namely university professors.

‘Yesterday one of the most difficult tasks of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was implemented in one of the most complicated transfer operations of uranium reserves from Iran,’ Baeedinejad wrote on his Instagram page on Tuesday.

He noted that two months of hard work day and night was done for transfer of Iran’s uranium to Russia and the complicated operation took place in coordination with Russia and Kazakhstan.

‘The (nuclear) fuel exchange is going on well; Iran has imported 137 tons of yellow cake from Russia and will export around 9 tons of its enriched uranium to Russia in the next few days,’ Baeedinejad said.

On November 23, Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Ali Akbar Salehi aid that Tehran has signed an agreement with Russia to export 9 tons of its enriched uranium and import 140 tons of uranium ore.

‘We will sell the Russians 9 tons of enriched uranium, and we will be paid for enrichment services through receiving raw material and import 140 tons of natural uranium which is a large amount,’ Salehi said in an interview with the IRIB.

‘The relevant agreement has been signed and we will adopt the needed action in this regard,’ he added.

The Russian media have also reported that President Vladimir Putin has ordered adoption of the necessary measures and some good news will be announced about exchange of nuclear fuel in coming days, Salehi said.

In relevant remarks in October, Salehi announced that Iran was conducting final negotiations with Russians in a bid to exchange its enriched uranium in return for natural uranium.

The AEOI chief said that according to the provisions of the accorded nuclear agreement with the six world powers on July 14, an Iranian delegation is in Moscow to finalize nuclear fuel exchange with Russia.

‘We have about 9 metric tons of enriched uranium, and we opted to sell this amount in global markets in choosing from two options of deluding or selling; this is a strong advantage of JCPOA for Iran,” he added, estimating that the fuel exchange would be possible by next two months after necessary arrangements.

“A second obligation of the nuclear agreement is drafting the official document of reconstructing Arak Heavy Water Complex which would be crystallized in three papers; the first of these three was drafted few weeks ago in Vienna and Iran, the US, and China signed and the Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, Britain and France plus Germany) approved it. The first document identifies obligations of Iran and the Sextet and a general process of implementation,” Salehi added.

‘The second paper which is called ‘understanding document,’ has a work division mechanism among 5+1 in reconstruction of Arak Heavy Water Complex. A third and final paper was discussed in Vienna by Iran’s nuclear negotiators, and is a parent paper which should be signed; the bill approved by the Parliament as well addresses this issue, emphasizing that at least an official paper should be drafted on Arak Heavy Water Complex and be approved by authorities,” he told the program.

Iran and the six world powers held several rounds of talks in Geneva, Lausanne and Vienna before striking a final agreement in Vienna on July 14 to end a 13-year-old nuclear standoff.

After the agreement, the UN Security Council unanimously endorsed a draft resolution turning into international law the JCPOA reached between Iran and the G5+1 over the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.