Abbas Shari-Moqaddam told Shana that capital plays a key role in the petrochemical industry but the capital is not one that can be procured by one or two investors.
‘Therefore, investors must join hands to bankroll the projects and Iranian financiers must seek foreign partners to develop the projects,’ he said.
He said ease of access to abundant oil and gas reserves that can be used as petrochemical feedstock, educated local labor, and being located in a key geographical region are some of the features that justify investment in Iran’s petrochemical sector.
Iran contributes to 25% of the Middle East’s petrochemical output and 4.3% of the world’s. Petrochemical products all account for 2% of the GDP in Iran.
Iranian petrochemical plants process 44.5 million tons of petrochemicals annually which is less than their nameplate capacity due to feedstock shortages.
Iran has defined dozens major petrochemical projects which are expected to double the country’s production capacity to 120 mt/y by 2025.
Some 36 new projects have been defined in the country’s petrochemical hubs which will add another 60mt/y to the country’s annual output for which 32 billion dollars are needed to be invested.
Iran has 67 half-finished petrochemical projects up for grabs with 20 to 90% physical progress which are planned to come on-stream based on a schedule.

The country welcomed the recent repeal of the 40-year-old crude export ban in the United States and the scheduled lifting of sanctions in Iran, the ministry statement said according to Reuters.

South Korea is the world’s fifth-largest crude importer and one of the major buyers of Iranian oil.

‘If the sanctions on Iran are lifted, refiners expect to hike their Iranian crude imports to the level seen before the sanctions were imposed,’ the statement said. Refiners hope to import U.S. condensate as supply of the light oil in Asia is now tight, it added.

South Korean refiners will look at importing supplies of U.S. condensate should U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate price drop to a discount of between $4-$6 a barrel to Middle East benchmark Dubai, the statement said, citing the refineries.

February WTI futures were trading at $36.40 per barrel on Wednesday while the February Dubai swap is at $33.08 a barrel.

South Korea’s crude oil shipments from Iran fell nearly 30 percent in November from a year ago, with imports in the first eleven months of 2015 falling 0.8 percent and meeting sanction requirements over Tehran’s nuclear program.

The U.S. Congress this month voted to lift a 40-year-old ban to export domestic crude supplies, and although no immediate large-scale exports are expected, this does mean that some American oil will flow from the United States into the global market next year, shifting the oil balance.

World Bank recently published a report on debts of world countries in years 2000 to 2014.

The report shows that Iran’s long term foreign debts in 2014 were $3.042 billion, one billion dollars less than 2013.

According to the report Iran’s total foreign debt in 2013 was $7.006 billion.

The deal was signed during visit by Iranian Energy Minister Hamid Chitchian to the Armenian capital with his counterparts from the three countries.

Once fully implemented, the agreement will make it possible for Iran to connect its power grid to Russia.

Officials in Tehran have already announced that the most important precondition for this is to synchronize the grids of Iran and Armenia. They have emphasized that both countries have agreed to make the required arrangements to do this in the nearest time possible.

Armenia and Iran are planning to complete their third power transmission line in less than two years, a senior Armenian energy official announced on Wednesday.

‘The construction of the third Armenia-Iran power line will take 18 months to complete,’ Armenian Deputy Energy and Natural Resources Minister Hayk Harutyunyan said.

He reiterated that the third power transmission line will allow Armenia and Iran to increase the amount of their swap deal of gas for electricity.

In August, Yerevan and Tehran signed an agreement on the construction of the third power transmission line between the two countries. The cost of the project is about $120 million.

Airways News website reported in an article that experts believe Iran will order 450 new airplanes over the next five years.
It added that 400 of the new planes will be for mainline services, adding that 150 of them will be used for widebody services. The remaining 50 will be used for regional purposes and will be mostly turboprops.
Airways News added that demand for international flights that would require wide body aircraft will specifically rise.
“The deal opens up an entirely new long haul market, with VFR and even business driven traffic to the US,” the aviation news site added.
“There are roughly 700,000 Iranian-Americans [in the US], and Los Angeles (where the largest Iranian expat community in the US lives), New York, Washington D.C., and Houston could all support service to Tehran over the medium to long run.”
Airways News further emphasized that the demand for air trips from Europe and China to Iran will also rise as the country is expected to become a major tourism destination for both regions once the sanctions are lifted.
“[Iran’s] economic growth will push up domestic and regional traffic, particularly amongst tier 2 and tier 3 cities,” the website further added.
“And if the price of oil swings back towards historical norms, then all of these figures will likely have to be pushed up by 20-25%.”
Airways News quoted speculations that Iranian airlines are expected to proceed with revamping their ageing fleet of planes after the removal of the sanctions which is expected to happen in January.
“As far as the new orders go, the airlines will certainly order new generation aircraft like the Boeing 737 MAX, Airbus A320neo, Airbus A350, and Boeing 787. But given that these aircraft don’t have many delivery slots left, you can also expect the carriers to order present generation aircraft like the Boeing 737, Airbus A330, and Boeing 777-300ER, helping fill Airbus/Boeing’s production gaps in the process,” it said.
“And there’s always the outside chance that they throw Boeing a bone and buy some 747-8is…. Even if the economics of the 747-8i are subpar, the symbolism of the Iranians ordering Boeing’s biggest jet might be too big to pass up.”

‘We have produced over 160 tons of heavy water, out of which about 130 tons will remain stored for later use to operate the [Arak] reactor,’ Ali Akbar Salehi said in a recent interview with Al-Alam News Network.
Salehi said, ‘We have put the remaining 30 tons up for sale as agreed’ under the July 14 nuclear deal with major powers, which will place temporary constraints on Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
The nuclear chief said Iran is ready to trade heavy water with any country, including the United States, for either cash or natural uranium, also known as yellowcake.
‘The US should be considered a potential customer because it is the world’s largest buyer of heavy water,’ he said.
However, Salehi noted that the US demand that the excess supply of heavy water be shipped out of the country prior to the implementation of the accord is beyond Iran’s commitments.
‘The sale of the heavy water supplies is not a precondition for the enforcement of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [the formal title of the deal] and according to the action plan, it can be done after the deal’s implementation,’ he said.
‘The demand is out of the norm. There should not be any demand beyond the JCPOA.’
The pact bans any additional heavy water reactors or accumulation of heavy water in Iran for 15 years, requiring all excess heavy water to be ‘made available for export to the international market.’
The International Atomic Energy Agency’s board of governors formally announced the conclusion of its probe into Tehran’s nuclear past by adopting a resolution on Dec. 15, clearing the path for the JCPOA to take full effect after the IAEA verified temporary curbs on Iran’s nuclear work are in place.
According to Financial Tribune, the curbs include removing two-thirds of installed centrifuges at Fordo and Natanz nuclear facilities. Salehi said Iran will complete uninstalling centrifuges in a couple of weeks.
Of the total 19,000 centrifuges, 11,000 are inactive. About 3,000 active centrifuges need to go offline.
‘About 2,000 active centrifuges have been removed so far,’ he added.

Homan Fathi made the remarks in a meeting with LithuanianAmbassador to Tehran here on Wednesday.

He said that a wide range of consultations have been started by all countries, who are able to cooperate with Iran in some part of agriculture.

Baltic Sea countries have special characters, including taking good advantages of technology in the field of agriculture, meanwhile they are good markets for part of Iranian agricultural products.

Fathi said that good activities have been started with Finland and there were appropriate delegation exchanges between the two countries and Agriculture Minister of Finland is to visit Iran sometime in March.

He added that Lithuania also had been in talks with Iran and the Lithuanian minister of agriculture visited Iran a few week ago.

Cooperation with Poland has been mainly in technology issues and exchanging expert delegations, he added.

He expressed hope for participation of private sector and economic activists in the fields of agriculture and said that it is expected that government officials follow up appropriately goals in the fields of research, exchanging experiences, removing technology needs and investment.

The documents were signed by officials of the two countries in a ceremony attended by Minister of Communications and Information Technology Mahmoud Vaezi and Igor Shuvalov, the Russian first deputy prime minister.
A visit to Iran by Russian President Vladimir Putin last year marked a new chapter in Tehran-Moscow cooperation.
Based on a document signed between Tehran and Moscow in a three-day meeting of Iran-Russia Joint Economic Cooperation Commission on November 13, the two governments agreed on enhanced cooperation in different areas.

Khabaronline.ir’s Khatereh Vatankhah has filed a report that focuses on the likely impact of the decision of the US Central Bank on Iran’s economy. The following is the translation of that piece:
Several economies were still grappling with the fallout of a decline in global oil prices when the US Federal Reserve decided to raise interest rates by 0.25 percent. The first likely impact will be a rise in the value of the greenback.
The decision to raise interest rates was meant to push the US economy into an overdrive, but some analysts believe that this decision will have a negative impact on emerging economies because as a result of the rise in question the volume of their debts to the US will swell. Will these countries do something in reaction? What will be the best reaction? And what impact will it have on Iran’s economy which is on the verge of leaving sanctions behind? There are no clear-cut answers to these questions. Analysts are still studying the market. What is certain though is that the value of the US dollar will rise against other currencies, including the Japanese Yen.
Morteza Imani-Rad, an international economy analyst, says, “Although the rise in the value of the greenback won’t be plain sailing, one cannot deny the fact that the US dollar will remain a strong currency in global markets in 2016. That means other currencies such as the British pound and Euro will remain weak. On the other hand, oil and gold are projected to be traded at low prices in the world markets. Their prospects for 2016 are not that bright.”
The world economy is on a downward slope; the decline in crude oil prices has made matters worse and the decision of the Federal Reserve will see these conditions persist.
In an interview with khabaronline.ir, international economy expert Mohammad Hadi Mahdavian has said that economies that were out of recession before the decision of the Feds will see a slowdown in growth next year; those which have yet to lift themselves out of recession, will remain mired in bad conditions next year.
Major economies won’t keep silent in the face of the Federal Reserve’s decision. These economies, especially members of the EU, are high likely to take action and hike their own interest rates because they seek to strike a balance on the money market.
When other economies decide to raise their own interest rates, the global recession will worsen because countries whose currencies have lost ground will get into a race to save their national economies and prevent a decline in their exports.
How countries will react to the US interest hikes falls into three categories: silence and inaction; a proportionate reaction; reactions exceeding the Federal Reserve’s measure.
What impact will the US interest hike have on Iran’s economy?
In response to the question above Mahdavian says any decisions world economies make in reaction to the US interest hike will have an impact on Iran’s economy. If the European Union with which Iran’s has the largest volume of trade ties raises its own interest rate, the Euro will grow in value and that will leave a mark on Iran’s economy.
In a recent report Rating Agency Moody’s said the “rate hike by the U.S. Federal Reserve, which would be its first in more than nine years, could hit the capital market in emerging market countries” and this will have negative consequences for these countries.
Analysts say emerging economies such as Brazil, Russia, Turkey and South Africa will bear the brunt and have to deal with several local challenges on their currency markets as well as instability in monetary markets. In light of the fact that emerging markets have commercial transactions with Iran, that impact will pass on to Iran.
On his Instagram page Imani-Rad has written, “These developments urge [Iranian] MPs to act more cautiously and opt for a rational foreign currency rate [in the spending package] in a bid to prevent a budget deficit which may follow a decline in exports and oil prices. That will help stave off unexpected budgetary problems hitting the government and members of the public.”
The Iranian private sector has heard the message of global markets; as for what arrangements the government will make, we need to wait. Preserving the value of national currency should be the priority of any decision the government makes. At a time when major economies seek to shore up their currency against the dollar, Iranian monetary policymakers should consider the same thing.

‘If the sanctions on Iran are lifted, refiners expect to hike their Iranian crude imports to the level seen before the sanctions,’ South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said on Wednesday.
South Korea is currently one of Iran’s major oil customers, taking advantage of the nuclear deal which allows purchase of about 1 million bpd oil from Iran.
Iran has prepared its oil extraction facilities and export terminals for immediate ramp-up of recovery by 500,000 bpd intended for shipment to the market when the sanctions are lifted.
South Korean import of Iranian crude fell nearly 30 percent in November from a year ago, with imports in the first eleven months of 2015 falling 0.8 percent to meet sanctions requirements, according to Reuters.
Iran’s oil production is already mounting as international buyers are boosting purchases. Exports are set to rise to a six-month high of 1.26 million bpd in December, according to tanker loading schedules.
Iran has already secured customers for its planned supply expansion, Deputy Oil Minister for Commerce and International Affairs Hossein Zamaninia said last week.
On Monday, Indian refiners were reported to be discussing possible rise in oil imports from Iran, Press TV said.
The Indians demanded price discounts and incentives as they met International Affairs Director of the National Iranian Oil Company Mohsen Qamsari in New Delhi.
The Iranian official was reported to be willing to consider the proposals from the refiners, including those which halted imports due to sanctions.
Iran currently offers 90-day credit free shipping and some discounts on crude prices to India which is the second biggest customer for Iranian crude. However, officials in Tehran have said the framework will change when sanctions are lifted.