NICOSIA, Cyprus, April 5--Iran’s ambitious plans to raise production and exports of oil, gas and condensates through a mix of projects involving local and international companies, face major obstacles, the Middle East Economic Survey reported Monday.
The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) aims to raise production from as little as 2.4 million barrels per day to 5.4 million barrels per day by 2009, the report said.
The Cyprus-based weekly publication quoted oil industry analyst Fereydoun Fesharaki as saying that ’adding three million barrels per day is virtually impossible given the revised buyback system and the way the system is set up’.
“Every year Iran announces big new discoveries, but at the end of the year the capacity is still the same: (at the most) four million barrels per day. We believe this is the realistic limit to Iran’s capacity under the present system,“ Fesharaki said in his year-end report on Iran’s oil industry.
Decline rates in Iran are said to be rising, with onshore declines up from seven to eight percent a year and offshore rates at 13 percent a year, the report said.
“This means Iran is losing 350,000 barrels per day of capacity a year and there is a possibility of the decline rising to 500,000 barrels per day annually before the end of the year,“ Fesharaki said in his report.
As regards condensate production at the primary South Pars gas field project, this is expected to reach 1,015,000 barrels per day by mid-2007, with output increments of 425,000 barrels per day by 2008 and up to 550,000 barrels per day by 2010.
Finally, Iran’s current gas production currently stands at 25 billion cubic feet daily, a figure far below its mounting domestic needs, with political wrangling to completely halt exports, as local gas demand by 2010 is expected to amount to 42 billion cubic feet daily. “Iran will export gas, but in a much more limited manner than Qatar. We view Iran as exporting 15 to 20 million tons a year of liquefied natural gas (LNG) by the middle of the next decade, with an upper ceiling of 25 to 30 million tons a year as a lifetime maximum,“ Fesharaki concluded.

90 percent of the technical operations of new buildings will be reviewed and examined by the Engineering Council.

Civil engineers believe that about 50-70 percent of the buildings in the capital are dilapidated, old and substandard. However with the approval of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development and the directive to issue technical ID cards for buildings from the last Iranian year (ended March 20), those in charge of urban development finally decided to put an end to uncontrolled housing construction in urban areas.
Urban development engineers claim that in Tehran, there are close to 900,000 dilapidated and substandard housing units which are on the verge of collapse. The new law provides a good opportunity for urban developers and municipalities, such as Tehran Municipality, to prove that they are prepared to standardize building construction by means of executing the plan to issue technical ID cards, reported Iran Daily’s correspondent.
Nevertheless, the reporter of Iran Daily decided to follow up the issue closely and find out the reasons for the delay in implementing such an important plan, but no official in charge of urban development or municipalities could give any convincing answers. They all avoided any kind of interview.
Some time ago the Executive Director of the Engineering Council, Mohsen Ghaffari, told reporters that as of the current Iranian year (started March 21), the plan to get technical ID cards will be implemented as a way of improving the quality of construction projects.
He expressed concern over cooperation with other establishments such as the municipalities and stressed that the failure to implement the plan would be considered a dereliction of duty.
According to him, in addition to the above-mentioned plan, other schemes to supervise the construction of buildings have also been devised, based on which the Engineering Council will intensify its efforts to control and supervise the way building construction designs are drawn up and implemented.
The official stressed that unless changes are made in the structure of municipalities for executing the plan, poor quality and substandard construction projects will continue to exist.
Director General of Office of Engineering Councils and Professional Organizations, Mohammad Sadeqh Mousavi Khalkhali, told Iran Daily that as of March 21, 2005, his department has intensified its supervision of construction sites and that Tehran Municipality will be in charge of issuing ID cards for buildings constructed after 1990. However, he said that the department will issue ID cards for structures built after March 21.
“Based on the ratifications, 90 percent of the technical operations of new buildings will be reviewed and examined by the council. The ID cards will help improve the quality of buildings to meet international standards.
The ID cards will have complete information about the buildings, such as engineering operations as well as supervision and construction works. They will be then submitted to the council for further investigation and approval,“ he said.
There are some 1.9 million buildings in the capital, of which almost 70 percent are dilapidated. There are 5,600 hectares of land with dilapidated houses built above them.

Kish Island is one of the most attractive islands in the Persian Gulf.

KISH, Hormuzgan, April 5--About $3.5 billion investment has been made in southern Iranian island of Kish up to the end of the last Iranian year which ended on March 20, reported IRNA.
The Public Relations and International Affairs Department at Kish Free Trade Zone Organization said that private sector investment was about nine times higher than that of the public sector.
There are about 60 hotels with 9,000 beds hosting Iranian and foreign tourists in Kish Island.
Kish Island is one of the most attractive islands in the Persian Gulf, receiving about one million Iranian and more than 100,000 foreign tourists a year.

TEHRAN, April 5--Philippines’ House Speaker Jose de Venecia on Monday called on Iran to invest in his country’s petrochemical, energy and railroad construction sectors, IRNA reported.
In a meeting with Secretary General of Iran’s Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) group Mohsen Yahyavi, who is heading the Iranian parliamentary delegation to 112th IPU meeting in Manila, de Venecia asked Iran to support the Philippine’s proposed resolution on the establishment of a natural disaster fund in the UN.
Referring to President Khatami’s initiative on ’Dialogue among Civilizations’ and support of late Pope John Paul II of the idea for settling the conflicts in different areas of the world, he emphasized the implementation of the initiative.
Yahyavi, for his part, welcomed extension of bilateral relations especially in the fields of trade and energy and declared Iran’s readiness to expand ties between the two countries.
He termed the establishment of parliamentary friendship group between Iran and the Philippines as a ’positive step’.
Establishing a world organization to confront the devastating consequences of natural disasters is a necessary step, he added and expressed hope the related resolution can be approved in the meeting.
The 112th IPU meeting began in Manila on Sunday and will last for six days.

TEHRAN, April 5--The independence of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) is the first major step towards separating financial and monetary policies.
Stating this, the head of the High Banking Institute, Mohammad Tayyebian told Fars news agency here on Tuesday the independence of the central bank can only materialize once the budgetary system of the country becomes independent of the monetary system and is free from state interference.
He said the independence of the CBI does not mean sovereignty, adding, “The parliament should devise regulations and framework of operations for the CBI to avoid possible problems. If these are in place, no difficulties will arise.“
It is also important for the bank to have a stable management body, he said, adding, “Steps should be taken to ensure that the replacement of the CBI governor, who is appointed by the president for a certain period of time, would be subject to parliamentary approval.“
He underlined the role of the central bank in economic development and tackling inflation in developed countries, adding, “Governments in these countries do not force central banks to compensate for budget deficit, as this increases inflation rates and liquidity.
“Given the lack of independence, such a situation has taken place in Iran where the government still offsets its budget deficit through the central bank. Few countries weaken their national currencies by increasing liquidity. Independence of the CBI could to some extent help solve these problems,“ he concluded.

TEHRAN, April 5--Minister of commerce here on Tuesday announced that $8 billion had been earmarked from the Foreign Exchange Reserve Fund to promote non-oil exports as well as meet the requirements of the private sector in the 2005 fiscal year budget.
Mohammad Shariatmadari said, “In a bid to reduce loan/credit charges for exporters, the government earmarked $500 million from the same source to the banks to encourage and support non-oil exports.
“The banks are responsible for providing funds to exporters in order to promote non-oil exports and pay for the costs as per cabinet ratification. The administrative costs of these facilities stand at two percent. The banks will extend credits of $1.5 billion at a profit rate of 14 percent to help bolster industries producing exportable goods,“ he said.
The minister put the total amount of loans at over $2 billion having less than 10 percent in bank profit rates, adding, “Based on the Budget Bill for the current year, about 50 percent of this figure will be allocated as a guarantee to increase the capital of exporters, the other 50 percent, as approved by the Management and Planning Organization, will be set aside to pay for export subsidies and compensate for foreign exchange rate fluctuations incurred by exporters in 2000.“
He put the total amount of banking facilities at 97 billion rials and added, “This amount will come from the one percent of customs duties and profits from imports. Half of the credit will be in the form of export awards and compensations.“
Shariatmadari further announced the approval of one trillion rials to cover activities of the Trade Promotion Organization of Iran to fulfill supportive objectives of augmenting the volume of foreign trade and non-oil exports.
He said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will spend 10 billion rials from the expenditure credits in 2005 to boost Iran’s share of international trade and encourage effective participation in developing industries contributing to non-oil exports.

NEW DELHI, India, April 5--Indian Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said Monday a gas pipeline deal with Iran and Pakistan is ’on track’ despite US opposition, according to India-based website Express Newsline.
“There are no doubts over the Iran gas pipeline,“ he said. “It is on track. I am going to Tehran and Islamabad soon and we hope to finalize this issue.“
The minister is expected to visit Pakistan in late May to discuss the 1,625-mile-long, $4.16 billion pipeline that will carry gas from Iran through Pakistan to energy-starved India. From there, Aiyar is scheduled to go to Iran.
The warming of ties with traditional rival India has made the deal possible since some 475 miles of the pipeline will traverse Pakistani territory. Pakistan’s own growing energy needs has acted as a sweetener. The pipeline will have a tap-point in Pakistan.
The United States has expressed concern over the deal because it involves Iran, which Washington is trying to focus international attention upon for its alleged nuclear weapons program. Tehran denies it is making such weapons.

A new contract has been signed to build several hangars at the IKIA in the near future.

TEHRAN, April 5--Minister of Roads and Transportation said here Tuesday that Imam Khomeini International Airport (IKIA) is ready to become operational despite the shortcomings.
Mohammad Rahmati further said Iran Air will be in charge of handling the services at Imam Khomeini International Airport adding that it will undertake the responsibility in cooperation with a private company.
He told ISNA a third company will not attend the inauguration ceremony of the airport but will cooperate in service handlings one month after the ceremony.
“With the participation of Iran Air and other domestic airlines, foreign airlines will be free to choose the way their catering services are handled, but they can still receive assistance from Iran Air or Mehrabad International Airport.
The minister stressed that the airlines will not have any problem with catering services and that there has been no major private investment in this field at the airport.
“Iran Air will offer maintenance and engineering services to the planes. The new airport does not have sufficient hangars. A new contract has been signed to build several hangars at the airport in the near future. The airport is operational even though there will be some delays and technical issues to deal with during the first days of operation,“ he maintained.