Iran plans to invest more than $120 billion in liquefied natural gas to become the worldÕs leading exporter of LNG within 12 years

Iran plans to invest more than $120 billion in liquefied natural gas (LNG) to become the worldÕs leading exporter of LNG within 12 years, Presstv reported.
ÒIran has already secured five billion dollars from its own resources, partners and banks and has no financing problems,Ó said Ali Kheirandish, managing director of IranÕs LNG Company at a Middle East project finance conference in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
ÒI can assure you that we do not have any problem or difficulty in securing funds for our projects because of the very good investment returns and profits of these projects. Many financiers have come to us with very attractive offers and we expect more banks to make offers,Ó he added.
ÒBased on forecasts, we can produce 80 million tons of LNG by 2020. We can subsequently increase this amount but this will depend on the market and other conditions,Ó he continued.
Nearly 70 percent of the LNG production would be sold to Asia and Europe under long-term contracts while the rest would be sold on the spot market. Condensates and sulfur will be marketed mainly in India and the Far East.
Kheirandish predicted an expanding LNG market in the future in view of the ever-growing global gas consumption.
LNG is natural gas that has been converted to liquid for easy storage and transport.
Meanwhile, the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) on Saturday unveiled ambitious new privatization plans at the International Energy Arena in Istanbul.
The plans are aimed at privatizing IranÕs natural gas industry and opening up private companies to foreign investment to create financially stable and transparent markets, said NIGC Managing Director Reza Kasaeizadeh at the energy conference.
The conference, titled ÔTomorrowÕs Strategy in Natural GasÕ, brought together prominent private and public officials to discuss TurkeyÕs role in the growing natural gas market and the impact of regional players, like Iran, on global energy security.
Iranian Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari recently referred to substantial moves in Iran to privatize its energy sector, adding Iran continues to provide incentives to attract additional foreign investments in the oil, gas and petrochemical industries.
IranÕs ambitious infrastructure projects were immediately criticized by the US energy diplomat at the US Embassy in Ankara, Rebecca H. Neff.
Neff claimed despite US policy to foster economic growth, which will require greater energy sources, the US is against doing business as usual with Iran because of its nuclear activities.
She claimed that energy development in the region must continue without IranÕs involvement until the country gives up its nuclear activities.
She also claimed that the most important gas development project at this time is AzerbaijanÕs Shah Deniz II gas field.
ÒIncreased Turkish involvement in the project will only expedite the completion of Shah Deniz II,Ó she said.
Iran, which holds the worldÕs second largest gas reserves after Russia, began constructing its first liquefied natural gas plant on Tombak Island over a year ago. The LNG plant has two trains, the first will be ready by the end of 2010 and that is when the first shipment will be made.
The country is currently negotiating with several international companies which would determine the export destinations of the LNG.
Iran aims to initially export 2.5 million tons of LNG and gradually increase this to 10.8 million tons within one year.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has instructed relevant bodies to implement a law on establishing a shipping industries fund, Mehr News Agency reported.
With an initial capital of 400 billion rials, the fund will seek to support the shipping industry by resolving the problems in the sector.
As per the law to support shipping industries, the government is obliged to extend financial facilities gratuitously equaling the income tax of the same year to owners of ships registered by the Ports and Shipping Organization and sail under the flag of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Also, the import of materials and parts which are not domestically produced and are required for building and repairing vessels are permitted without the need for opening L/C.
The law also requires the Central Bank of Iran to provide the fund with financial resources to the ceiling of one billion dollars for a year from the Oil Stabilization Fund and other financial sources.

Tax regime should employ modern technology to materialize the goals of justice in the society, said the caretaker of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance.
Hossein Samsami said during a visit to the Information Technology Center of State Taxation Affairs Organization that establishing contacts with various economic sectors is among the positive steps taken by relevant officials to ensure a dynamic taxation system, ISNA reported.
He said efforts should be made to expedite the implementation of plans drawn up for improving the taxation system. ÒThis would help officials curb tax evasions and exercise greater supervision over economic activities,Ó he noted.
He stated that the government is striving to promote justice in society.
Head of the State Taxation Affairs Organization Ali Akbar Arabmazar also said that the organization is in regular touch with the banking system, IranÕs Customs Administration, and the State Documents Registration Organization.

IranÕs long-term objectives have been economic independence, full employment, and suitable standard of living for its citizens.

IranÕs economy is in transition and, according to experts, an annual economic growth of over five percent will be required to meet the demand of 900,000 job seekers each year.
Budget deficits have also been a chronic problem, in part due to high state subsidies to the tune of more than $80 billion per year for the energy sector alone, which amounts to 80 percent of the governmentÕs budget in 2008.
The government is striving to minimize its dependence on oil revenues by investing it in other economic sectors including auto manufacturing, aerospace industries, electronics, petrochemicals and nuclear technology. Also, Iran has great potentials in mining, tourism, information and communication technology.
IranÕs long-term objectives since the 1979 Islamic Revolution have been economic independence, full employment and suitable standard of living for its citizens, but at the end of the 20th century the countryÕs economic future was lined with obstacles.
Population more than doubled in that period and grew increasingly young. The literacy rate and life expectancy in Iran are high for the region, but so, too, is inflation which regularly hovers in the range of 16 percent annually.
Iran remains highly dependent on its one major industry--petroleum and natural gas for export.
At the end of the Iraq-imposed war in 1988, the government started to develop the countryÕs communication, transportation, manufacturing, energy infrastructures (including its prospective nuclear power facilities) and hospitals and schools and in recent months has begun the process of integrating its communication and transportation systems with those of neighboring states.
According to IRNA, the Fourth Five-Year Economic Development Plan (2005-10) sets the guidelines and points to the direction the trade sector will take over the next three years. The focus has been on expanding international trade and ensuring an active presence in global markets.
To achieve this would require raising non-oil exports substantially. Another area of focus has been to develop free trade zones and transform them into gateways to international markets.
On the domestic front, the priority has been to improve social justice and the overall economic conditions i.e. regulating the domestic market on the one hand, and maintaining a well-functioning supply of basic commodities on the other. The latter would need improving the subsidy distribution system to relieve the government of the huge financial burden, which has been the case in recent months.
Another obligation the plan places on the government is to provide economic justification for setting the prices of basic commodities and public services.
The five-year economic development plan also calls for the creation of a Ônational InternetÕ, a target growth of 15 percent annually for the railroad network, launching branches of foreign banks (first Irano European Commercial Bank opened in Tehran last Wednesday), and a four-fold increase in petrochemical output to 56 million tons per year. The plan also seeks to reduce workforce in the state sector by five percent, create 700,000 new jobs per year, and generating 6,000 MW of electricity from nuclear plants by 2010 to meet the increasing demand for energy and establish 50 to 60 industrial parks by the end of the fifth five-year economic development plan in 2015.
Turning to ÔVision 2025Õ, the plan has set an investment target of $3.7 trillion within two decades of which $1.3 trillion should be foreign investment.
According to the Fourth Plan, IranÕs Privatization Organization, affiliated to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance, is responsible for setting prices and selling shares to the general public and on the stock market.
Currently privatization effort calls for an initial public offering of five percent of the firms being privatized. Once the five percent is public, it will establish a market price on which further offerings can be based.

A budget of 1.2 trillion rials has been allocated to Technical and Vocational Training Organization in the year to March 2009 to promote private sector activities and meet the objectives of Article 44 of the Constitution (which seeks large-scale privatization), said the organizationÕs director general for research and planning affairs, according to ISNA.
To support the vulnerable strata of the society, the organization plans to offer training to those interested by conducting advanced workshops, Mohammad-Taqi Saberi explained.
As approved during the presidentÕs visits to the provinces, the capacity of technical and vocational training centers has increased by 50 percent and their number has risen to 4,300 from 415, the official pointed out.
With the cooperation of International Labor Organization, the body aims to draw experienced and specialist teachers from various countries to teach in the services, agricultural and industrial fields, Saberi underlined.
With allocation of World BankÕs loan to the Technical and Vocational Training Organization, the body can obtain the highest standard certificate ISO 100-15 across the country, he concluded.

Plans to implement five giant railway projects in the country were discussed in a meeting attended by Minister of Roads and Transportation Mohammad Rahmati, his deputies and a number of railway officials, said Managing Director of Islamic Republic of Iran Railways Hassan Ziari.
According to IRNA, the participants underlined the need to launch Tehran-Mashhad high-speed railway service, call tender for Gorgan-Mashhad railway project as well as conduct feasibility studies on establishing a rail link between Chahbahar and Mashhad and a highway and a railway line to Gilan using private investment.
ÒIt was decided that the project to establish a high-speed rail link between Tehran and Mashhad will be completed by using private investment,Ó he noted.
Ziari referred to the plan to construct a railway line along the Tehran-Shomal Freeway, which links the capital to the Caspian coast, as the other topic of discussion in the meeting.
Railways have a comparative advantage over other means of transportation and is superior to road transport in fuel consumption terms, he added.
Ziari said earlier that the railway sector is able to meet one-third of passengersÕ demands under ordinary conditions.