Iran oil export Archives - Iran News Daily

Iran’s Economy Under Sanctions

reporter 1222 — Mon, 15 Feb 2021 08:56:17 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iran had barely started to reap the economic benefits of its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers when Donald Trump withdrew and imposed sanctions so tight they plunged the country into its worst economic crisis since the 1980s.

Sworn in on Wednesday, the new U.S. president, Joe Biden, has already reversed some of his predecessor’s most controversial policies on immigration, climate, and health. He’s also promised to re-engage with the Islamic Republic and picked some of the architects of the original pact for top policy posts.

Even if sanctions are eventually eased again, Iran’s road to recovery could be even more fraught this time around. Below are five charts that show how the Iranian economy changed during the Trump years:

Iran’s economy contracted sharply during the Trump years. Unable to export most of its oil due to the new sanctions, its government turned to other exports instead, making a big push to develop domestic manufacturing and expand trade with immediate neighbors. That helped offset some of the impacts. It also meant that by the time Covid-19 hit global oil demand last year, Iran was better primed to absorb the shock than fellow crude exporters.

The Iranian rial has lost 80 percent of its value against the dollar over the course of Trump’s presidency.

The biggest casualty of Trump’s “maximum pressure” policy was the Iranian rial, which lost about 80% of its value against the dollar, fueling inflation, devastating purchasing power, and pushing millions of families into poverty. Efforts to stabilize the currency by controlling the rate and prosecuting money changers backfired, weakening the rial further as the black market thrived.

Iranian equities surged as the rial weakened and options-starved investors looked for affordable bets.

As the rial lost value, stocks saw unprecedented gains. The main index on the Tehran Stock Exchange has risen more than 600% since January 2019 as record numbers of new investors sought to shield their savings from inflation. The market has already begun to lose value since Biden’s election on expectations that sanctions will ease and the rial will strengthen again.

Iran-EU Trade

The European Union was Iran’s biggest trade partner before the bloc imposed oil sanctions in 2012 over the country’s nuclear program. Since then, China has become Iran’s top destination for energy exports and the biggest source of imports. It has been the lone customer for Iranian crude since Trump’s sanctions came into force in 2018. While Europe’s tried to keep the nuclear deal alive, it struggled to maintain economic ties in the face of U.S. penalties.

Iran’s Oil Export

In May 2019, the Trump administration suspended sanctions waivers that had enabled Iran to keep selling oil to a select number of countries. That sent crude exports plunging to 290,000 barrels a day, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, from about 2.6 million in January 2017, when Trump entered office. Iran has demanded the U.S. lift sanctions on its oil and banking industries as soon as possible and is preparing to increase production.

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Iran plans to export oil from Sea of Oman

reporter 1222 — Sat, 27 Jun 2020 03:52:34 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iran plans to export oil from a port on its Sea of Oman coast by March, President Hassan Rouhani said on Thursday, a shift that would avoid using the Strait of Hormuz shipping route.

Rouhani made the comment after he launched an oil pipeline project which will enable Iran to export its oil using a route other than the narrow waterway at the mouth of the Persian Gulf.

“What is strategic about this project is that many countries in the region have managed to find a second way so that they can export their oil using other routes whenever the Strait of Hormuz faces danger,” Rouhani said addressing a ceremony to inaugurate the project.

“This is a strategic decision and an important step for Iran that will secure the continuation of our oil exports,” he said in a televised speech.

Rouhani said Iran aimed to export 1 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil by March from Jask, a port on Iran’s Sea of Oman coast, just south of the Strait of Hormuz.

“This move will assure our oil buyers that Iran will continue exporting oil if the Strait is closed,” he said.

The 1,000-km pipeline will bring oil from Goreh in Bushehr port city in the Persian Gulf to Jask.

The Kharg Island terminal in the Persian Gulf is currently Iran’s main terminal, accounting for 90 percent of its oil exports. To reach Kharg, tankers must pass through the Strait of Hormuz.

With the launch of the pipeline from Goreh to Jask, the country’s oil exports will no longer be linked to the Hormuz Strait, which will make Jask strategically important as the country’s second-largest crude oil export terminal.

Hit by US sanctions, Iran’s oil exports are estimated at 100,000 to 200,000 bpd, down from more than 2.5 million bpd that Iran shipped in April 2018. The Islamic Republic’s crude production has halved to around 2 million bpd.

The strait is a narrow channel at the mouth of the Persian Gulf through which about a fifth of the world’s oil passes from West Asian producers to markets in Asia, Europe, North America, and beyond.

Reuters and Xinhua contributed to this story.

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Rouhani: Strait of Hormuz Not Iran’s Only Way For Oil Exports

reporter 1222 — Thu, 25 Jun 2020 05:28:45 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – President Hassan Rouhani said Iran no longer relies on the Strait of Hormuz for oil exports as a new oil terminal created on the Sea of Oman is opening a new export route for its crude.

The Strait of Hormuz is the world’s most important bottleneck for oil, where almost a fifth of the world’s crude or about 20 million barrels per day (bpd) passes through to markets in Asia, Europe, North America and beyond, Press TV reported.

Shipping through the narrow strait, with the lane just three kilometers wide in either direction at its narrowest point, has become fraught since the US began building its military presence in the Persian Gulf.

Iran is currently building a $1.8-billion oil pipeline to its port of Jask outside the mouth of the Persian Gulf as part of plans to protect its exports against potential problems in the region and to boost shipments of Caspian oil.

The approximately 1,000-kilometer pipeline will bring oil from Goreh in Bushehr to Jask, making it strategically important as the country’s second-largest crude oil export terminal.

The Kharg Island terminal deep in the Persian Gulf is currently Iran’s key outlet, accounting for 90 percent of its oil exports. To reach Kharg, tankers must pass the Strait of Hormuz.

“We are now building a 1,000-kilometer pipeline from Goreh to Jask, and our oil exports are no longer connected to the umbilical cord of the Strait of Hormuz. This is a first in Iran’s history,” Rouhani told a governors’ meeting in Tehran late Tuesday.

Rouhani said that the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei had told him that the project was “the most strategic work” his administration had done.

“This pipeline, through which we will be transporting our oil to Jask and the Sea of Oman, is a great, huge and unique work in the history of Iran,” the president added.

The new terminal is close to Chabahar which Iran is developing in cooperation with other countries, most notably India.

Chabahar is about to become a key link in the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), a multimodal network of ship, rail and road routes to move freight between India, Iran, Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia, Central Asia, and Europe.

It offers a key trade and transport corridor that presents a cheaper and shorter alternative to the traditional route through the Suez Canal.

The terminal would be connected to Iran’s Caspian Sea port of Neka, enabling Tehran to boost shipments of oil from Caspian producers.

Iran’s oil industry is on the frontline of the fight against the United States’ maximum pressure in a bid to reduce exports to zero.

The head of Iran’s Plan and Budget Organization, Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, said earlier this month that the government planned to run the country without oil. Iran, he said, earned just $8.9 billion from the sale of oil and related products in the last fiscal year, down from a peak of $119 billion less than a decade ago.

A boom in manufacturing has already seen Iranian companies looking beyond the domestic market to export an increasingly diverse range of goods, turning the devaluation of the rial to their advantage.

In 2019-20, non-oil exports totaled $41.3 billion, exceeding oil exports for the first time in Iran’s modern history. Around half of Iran’s non-oil exports were reportedly in manufactured goods, meaning that Iran’s factories earned more than double what the country’s oil rigs earned in export revenue last year.

Iranian consumer goods and industrial products—ranging from cookies to stainless steel—are exported widely within the Middle East as well as further afield to China, Russia, and Europe.

Manufacturing is also a major contributor to employment. Between March 2018 and December 2019, the manufacturing sector added 472,000 jobs.

The pivotal role of the sector in Iran’s economic resilience has not escaped the attention of the Trump administration. In January, Washington imposed new sanctions, targeting Iran’s construction, manufacturing, textiles, mining, aluminum, copper, iron, and steel industries, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.

The coercive measures affect the private sector and millions of blue-collar workers in Iranian factories, disproving the US government’s claim that the sanctions target the state and not ordinary people.

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Overcoming sanctions needed to export crude oil

reporter 1222 — Mon, 09 Dec 2019 11:30:28 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – Head of Iran’s Plan and Budget Organization Mohammad Baqer Nobakht highlighted the country’s measures to export a million barrels of crude per day in the next Iranian calendar year (March 2020 – March 2021) and said the country has taken new paths for overcoming the sanctions.

Speaking to reporters in Tehran on Monday, Nobakht noted that the national budget bill for next year along with its 19 volumes of annexes was presented to the parliament on Sunday.

“The budget (bill) has been prepared for the third year of major economic sanctions (against the Islamic Republic),” he stated.

“New paths of overcoming have been put on the agenda to get through the sanctions era,” the official said.

Noting that over the past eight months, Iran’s oil was exported at an average price of $62.5 per barrel, he said the exports of 1 million barrels of oil per day at a price of $50 has been planned in the next year, which would generate $18.25 billion of oil income.

The remarks come against the backdrop of increased tensions between Iran and the US with Washington imposing new sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

The US has ratcheted up pressure on Iran since last year after withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action known as JCPOA.

Since then, the administration of US President Donald Trump has been trying to reduce Iran’s oil exports to “zero,” and has sent an aircraft carrier strike group, a bomber squad, an amphibious assault ship, and a Patriot missile battery to the Middle East to try to stack up pressure on Tehran.

Iranian officials, however, have dismissed such moves as psychological warfare, saying the country has its own ways of circumventing the American bans.

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Exports to Iraq from one border top $800mn

reporter 1222 — Sun, 08 Dec 2019 08:01:37 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – Exports to Iraq through Mehran’s border terminal, located in the west of Ilam province, amounted to about 1.3 million tons, worth over $800 million during the eight months to November 21.

Director-General of Ilam Customs Administration Ruhollah Gholami said Iran’s exports to Iraq through the major gate witnessed a 25% increase in volume, compared with the corresponding period of last year.

On average, 1,000 trucks carry goods to Iraq from Mehran Border Terminal daily.

Export commodities Iraq mainly included cement, agro products, steel products, plastic products, cars, car parts and petrochemicals.

Earlier this year, economist reported that Iran has exported $2.5 billion worth of commodities and services to neighboring Iraq during the 100 days ending July 1, registering an increase of 20% compared with last year’s corresponding period.

In other words, goods worth an average $25 million were exported to the neighboring country per day, according to Secretary-General of Iran-Iraq Chamber of Commerce Hamid Hosseini.

He announced the figures during the Iran-Iraq Commercial Forum held at Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture on Saturday, IRIB News reported.

President of Iran-Iraq Chamber of Commerce Yahya Al-e Es’haq, who was also present at the forum, said Iran’s bilateral trade with Iraq is ten times more than that with the whole Europe.

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Iran economy pressured by illegal US sanctions: Russia FM

reporter 1222 — Sat, 07 Dec 2019 13:33:05 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said that the recent turmoil in Iran and the fact that its economy is pressured, is mainly a result of the illegal sanctions the US imposed on the Islamic Republic after unilaterally withdrawing from the 2015 nuclear deal.

“Problems in Iran are very serious, to a large extent because of the US sanctions that were imposed on that country absolutely illegally, because the Americans withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal and are seeking to make others implement it,” he told the Mediterranean Dialogues (MED) conference in Rome on Friday.

Lavrov also noted that the US scheme, which is meant to provoke public disconnect in Iran, was also used in Venezuela.

“If the US wants Iran economy to be pressured and instigate people’s discontent, we see such a scheme being used in Venezuela. It is a pattern.”

In May 2018, the US scrapped the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) that had been endorsed by the UN Security Council Resolution 2231.

Since then, the administration of US President Donald Trump has unleashed the “toughest ever” sanctions against Tehran, notably targeting its key oil exports.

In mid-November, the Iranian government rationed fuel in order to prevent the country from becoming reliant on gasoline imports in the future amid the US economic sanctions.

The move prompted protests in a number of cities that went largely peaceful, but turned violent when armed riotous elements took advantage of the situation to vandalize public and state property, and attack civilians and security forces alike.

Many of the rioters were found to have links to the US spy agency CIA as well as terrorist groups, royalists and separatists.

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Iran to take all necessary measures to keep oil export afloat

reporter 1222 — Mon, 07 Oct 2019 05:30:07 +0000

Tehran (Iran News) – Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said on Sunday that Iran will use any possible way to export its oil, stressing that exporting crude was the country’s legitimate right.

“We will use every possible way to export our oil and we will not succumb to America’s pressure because exporting oil is Iran’s legitimate right,” Zanganeh said.

Iran’s crude oil exports were cut deeply when the United States re-imposed sanctions after President Donald Trump exited last year from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

Speaking to the press on the same day, the official emphasized that Iran wants positive ties with all the countries in the region, adding that China’s national petroleum company had pulled out of developing phase 11 of the country’s giant South Pars gas field.

“We want to be friends with all regional countries. Our mutual enemy is outside the Middle East… I have no problem to meet with Saudi Arabia’s oil minister”, he stated.

*** Petropars to develop SP phase 11

Zanganeh also said that China’s CNPC had pulled out of a contract to develop South Pars Phase 11, adding Iranian Petropars Company would develop the project alone.

“China has pulled out of developing the phase 11 of South Pars field and Petropars will carry out the job,” he said.

In 2015, National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) signed a contract with a consortium of Total, CNPC International and Petropars to develop the offshore project in the Persian Gulf waters.

Following the U.S.’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal back in May 2018 and imposition of new sanctions and restrictions for foreign companies working in Iran, Total pulled out of the contract.

“The fate of the South Pars Phase 11 has been determined and Petropars will continue developing the project alone and by the end of the this [Iranian calendar] year (March 19, 2020), the first jacket will be installed in the phase for a platform with 500 mcf/d of gas production capacity,” Zanganeh said during a visit to MAPNA Group’s turbine workshop near Tehran.

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