Iran is ready to produce as much oil as OPEC determines for its quota.

TEHRAN, July 13--Iran’s OPEC governor said Wednesday that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has put the Islamic Republic’s oil production quota at 3.96 million barrels per day.
Hossein Kazempour-Ardebili told ISNA that Iran’s oil production capacity stands currently at 4.2 million bpd.
“In certain months, we produced 4.1 million bpd,“ he said, adding that the country will produce oil in accordance with OPEC decision.
He said Iran is ready to produce as much oil as OPEC determines for its quota.
Persian daily Iran reported Wednesday that during President Mohammad Khatami’s term in office, Iran turned into OPEC’s fourth largest member-state in terms of oil revenues.
The report further indicated that Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela are the top three OPEC countries in terms of oil revenues.
Indonesia has the lowest oil revenues.
Global crude oil prices have risen again after the US government reported that more than half of the output from the Gulf of Mexico is shut as Tropical Storm Emily approaches the region. This has raised concerns about supply shortages.
Crude oil for August delivery rose as much as 33 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $60.95 in after-hours electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Earlier, Futures touched $62.10 a barrel on July 7, the highest since trading began in 1983, on concerns that Hurricane Dennis might disrupt production for an extended period.

TEHRAN, July 13--A senior Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Mines official here on Wednesday called on the president-elect and his economic team to avoid hard-line and hasty decisions, expressing hope that the recent positive developments, including the start of World Trade Organization (WTO) talks, would accelerate economic development.
Jamshid Edalatian, the chamber’s vice chairman, told ILNA that the new president and his team could help remove the weak points of the national economy and provide remedy for the capital market.
He further said that Tehran Chamber of Commerce is ready to engage in talks with the new government on ways of developing the economy in accordance with social justice-oriented principles.
The official predicted that the next four years would be crucial for the national economy.
Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) has not yet recovered from an unprecedented ’panic sales’ that followed the victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June 24 presidential elections which brought down indices to record low.
It remains to be seen how the new president would cope with the worsening situation of the capital market as many investors are struggling to cash their shares and withdraw their money from the market.
More than two million people trade shares on the stock market in Iran, most of whom worried about the tumbling indices.

Following talks with the Oil Ministry for systemic fuel supplies, almost seven million tons will be added to the national steel production capacity in cooperation with private and foreign companies, said the Industrial Development and Renovation Organization director for steel industry affairs here on Wednesday.
Abdollah E’zazi told Iran Daily that the Oil Ministry’s proposal came following the increase in the country’s gas production from the hydrocarbon-rich southern area of Asalouyeh.
The official said the move could help develop steel industries in the southern regions, particularly in Bandar Abbas and in Bushehr province.
He further said that the amended foreign investment laws have encouraged foreign companies to invest in the steel industry.
“Two Indian companies have undertaken steel projects in the southern regions in recent months,“ he said, adding that the possible ratification in coming days of the Comprehensive Steel Scheme could help achieve steel industry targets in course of the fourth five-year development plan (2005-2010).
He said three million tons of steel will be exported annually over the next five years, when steel production capacity will reach some 18.5 million tons.
E’zazi said low prices in the Third Development Plan (2000-2005) slowed down the process of implementing steel projects in Iran, adding, however, that if the government manages to make use of foreign investments, it will be able to realize the objectives of the fourth plan in the steel industry.
“Last year some two million tons of steel were exported and this figure will increase by 10 percent this year,“ he said, adding that the average steel imports have reached 4.5 million tons in recent years.
The official said some nine million tons of steel were produced in the year to March 2005, when some 4.5 million tons were imported.
Iran’s steel production is expected to reach 10 million tons by March 2006.
Oil Ministry provides steel mills with the much needed fuel. Experts say Iran’s steel industry could develop substantially thanks to subsidized fuel.
Last month, the secretary general of International Iron and Steel Institute (IISI), Ian Christmas, told reporters in Tehran that Iran’s steel industry has the potential to go global, stressing that the institute is ’quite confident about the future of this industry in Iran’.

TEHRAN, July 13--A railways official said here on Wednesday that the rail transportation sector plans a 30-percent rise in transfer of goods and passengers over the next five years, stressing that lack of competition is the main challenge facing the sector’s development agenda.
Mohammad Saeed-Nejad, managing director of Islamic Republic of Iran Railways (IRIR), told ILNA that high costs involved in the rail sector projects have given rise to weak competition among rail companies.
The official further noted that businesses prefer to use other means of transportation to transfer goods across the country due to the rail transportation sector’s failure to provide services to all parts of the country.
Saeed-Nejad said earlier that the rail transport privatization scheme will be ready within three months, stressing that it has been modeled on the basis of the experience of other countries and will seek to promote competition among rail transportation countries.
Some 36 million passengers will be transported by railways during the fourth development plan (2005-2010).
However, low train fares have discouraged private companies from participating in railway projects in Iran.
IRIR’s earnings in the year to March 2005 stood at 500 billion rials while its expenditures topped 700 billion rials.
National demand for rail travels has been estimated at 80 million passengers per year.
The country needs 2,300 new rail carriages to meet the increasing demand.
Rail travels will increase 10-fold by 2021. The number of passengers traveling by rail increased from 11.7 million in 2000 to 17.3 million in the year which ended in March 2005.

Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref, who was speaking at the Second Seminar on Customs and Information Technology said the fourth five-year plan has paid special attention to the development of transit sector.

TEHRAN, July 13--First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref said here on Wednesday that expansion of regional economic cooperation tops Iran’s international policies, stressing that better economic ties with regional countries could help the stability and security of the entire region.
According to ISNA, Aref, who was speaking at the Second Seminar on Customs and Information Technology (IT), further said that the fourth five-year plan (2005-2010) has paid special attention to the development of transit sector, stressing that safe, unhindered and speedy transfer of goods and services at competitive prices to boost the country’s international interactions is one of the most important goals of the fourth plan.
“Given Iran’s strategic location in the region, the transit of goods as well as the (completion of) North-South Corridor are amongst the government’s top economic priorities,“ he said, calling for a change in the traditional outlook on customs activities.
Aref said customs offices need to make use of modern technologies.
He said the establishment of electronic government is high on the government’s agenda.
Earlier, the secretary of the Second Seminar on Customs and IT, which winds up in Tehran today, said digitalizing customs affairs would contribute greatly to efforts to check smuggling of goods.
Seyyed Aboutaleb Najafi, who is also the head of the national Automated System for Customs Data (ASICUDA) project, told ISNA that statistics show a considerable decline in the volume of contraband following the implementation of the customs digitalization scheme.
He said customs clearance services will be accelerated by employing digital systems, stressing the need to develop the digitalization project.
Some 45 percent of the country’s customs offices use the ASICUDA software. Iran is planning to digitalize 100 percent of its customs activities.

TEHRAN, July 13--Iran holds Asia’s second largest copper deposits with 25.3 percent of the total reserves in the continent, reported the Public Relations Office of Iran’s Mining House here on Wednesday.
Quoting the same report, Fars news agency further stated that Indonesia has the largest copper reserves in the continent.
Iran’s proven copper reserves stands at 1.9 billion tons from which some 14 million tons of pure copper can be obtained, the report added.
Copper ore production currently stands at 15 million tons per annum.
With the launching of the Songoun project, national copper ore production will reach 30 million tons per annum.
Iran’s mineral output is set to increase by 10 percent from last year’s 150 million tons in the year to March 2006. Some $186 million worth of minerals was exported in March 2004-2005.
Total exports in the mineral sector, including the export of metal and non-metal, processed and concentrated minerals as well as raw materials, reached $1.4 billion in the year to March 2005.
Several mines have been left unexploited across the country due to lack of funds. This is while the participation of foreign investors has not been encouraged in major mine exploration projects.
Iran is one of the richest countries in terms of mineral reserves. It has over 3,000 mines in operation employing some 70,000 people. Some 60 kinds of minerals are extracted from quarries in Iran. More than 142 million tons of minerals were extracted during March 2003-2004, when the country earned some $900 million from mineral export.

TEHRAN, July 13--Iran is willing to resume flights to Iraq, said a senior aviation industry official here on Wednesday stressing that the two sides have discussed air transportation cooperation during a recent visit to Tehran of an Iraqi delegation.
Nourollah Rezaei-Niaraki, acting head of the Civil Aviation Organization, told ILNA that the Iranian side is also ready to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on bilateral air transport cooperation.
Noting that there is no technical problem with Baghdad Airport on accommodating flights from Iran, the official said the political situation in the war-torn country does not permit the signing of the MoU in the near future.
“Given that the central government (in Baghdad) remains in the hands of the United States, I do not think that the issue (of resumption of flights) would materialize anytime soon,“ he said, adding that Iraq continues to be unsafe for international flights. Rejecting reports that the visiting Iraqi delegation was in town to discuss the fate of Iraqi airplanes kept in Iran since the first US-led war on Iraq in 1991, he underlined that such issues are decided by the Supreme National Security Council (SNCS). Five Iraqi Boeing airplanes were brought to Iran after the first Persian Gulf War, which ended the short Iraqi occupation of Kuwait.

TEHRAN, July 13--Brazilian Ambassador to Tehran Luiz Antonio Fechini Gomez and Head of Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi here on Tuesday discussed relations between the two countries as well as the latest international developments, IRNA said.
At the meeting, Boroujerdi referred to Brazil’s extensive financial and human potentials among Latin American countries and reiterated the need to expand ties in political, parliamentary and economic fields.
He stated the support of Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission for broadening relations.
Turning to Brazil’s bid for UN Security Council membership, he said that reforms in the United Nations should be in the interest of the entire humanity and all the countries.
“Given that Muslims make up a quarter of the global population, Islamic countries should be represented in the UN Security Council as a permanent member,“ he concluded.
For his part, Fechini Gomez underlined his efforts to upgrade mutual relations and noted that his country considers Iran as a significant state with a deep impact on the international scene.
He hoped that Brazil’s membership in the UN Security Council will enable it to support the interests of the developing countries as well as African states.
The Brazilian envoy called for further exchange of visits by political and parliamentary officials from both sides and termed it as a strategy to identify the cultural and economic potentials of the two countries.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, July 13--The election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as Iran’s president last month, together with rising project costs, could thwart petrochemicals group Sasol’s ambition to produce 600,000 barrels a day from three or four gas-to-liquids plants it hoped to develop in the next 10 years, according to Business Day.
Iran was expected to be the site of Sasol’s third gas-to-liquids plant after Qatar and Nigeria, where projects are already underway.
Sasol was studying several gas-rich areas across the globe, such as Australia and Russia, as potential venues for gas-to-liquids plants, but studies to this end in Iran were the most advanced.
New Sasol CE Pat Davies said that the company was unlikely to make a decision on a potential Iranian gas-to-liquids project in ’the next year or so’.
Sasol would have to wait and see how relations between Washington and Tehran developed following the election of the new Iranian president, said Davies.
Potential conflict between the two governments could have serious consequences for Sasol, which is building a seven-billion-rand polymers plant in Iran together with the National Petrochemical Company of Iran.
Sasol has been considering gas-to-liquids opportunities in that country for at least three years.