Self-Sufficiency in Gas, Thermal Power Plants

Iran has attained self-sufficiency in designing, engineering, constructing and installing the needed machineries in gas and thermal power plants, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said.
He made the remarks during a ceremony to inaugurate Pareh power plant in the city of Rezvanshahr in Northern Iran on Saturday, Fars News Agency reported.
Iranian experts are now among the best designers and constructors of power plants in the world, said the president, adding that most parts and equipment for construction of gas and thermal power plants are now manufactured domestically.
In March 2011, Managing Director of the Office of Technical Support for Production at the Ministry of Energy Hassan Mansouri announced Iran is among the four world countries that are capable of manufacturing advanced V94.2 gas turbines.
“Iran, after Europe, the US and Japan, is the fourth country that possesses the hi-tech to produce V94.2 turbines for gas power plants,” Mansouri said.
In July, Energy Minister Majid Namjou stressed Iran’s capability to build different types of dams to generate electricity, and said the country is self-reliant in power generation and distribution.
“We have no problem regarding the science and technology of generating and distributing electricity, quite needless of foreign countries,” he added.
The Islamic Republic produces enough electricity for national consumption and is currently exporting electricity to Armenia, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Nakhichevan, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Iran exported some 8.6 billion kilowatt hours of electricity last year (ended March 19), which indicates a 29-percent increase in comparison with the corresponding period of the preceding year, he added.

Ties With Pakistan Discussed

Iranian and Pakistani officials in a meeting conferred the two countries’ latest developments in economic relations, particularly in the field of energy.
During the meeting on Saturday, Pakistani Minister of Oil and Natural Resources Asim Hussain and Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi discussed completion of the project to lay a multi-billion-dollar gas pipeline that is due to take Iran’s gas to the energy-hungry Pakistan, Fars News Agency reported.
Hussain said the construction of Iran-Pakistan (IP) gasline will benefit both countries, and stressed the necessity of completing the pipeline project as soon as possible.
The Pakistani official arrived in Iran on Saturday to discuss the financing of IP gas pipeline project with Iranian officials.
Hussain said on September 4 that the gas pipeline project would become fully operational in 2014. “Surveys for the project are due to be completed before October 2012 and construction can start as early as December 2012”.
The Iranian foreign minister, for his part, reiterated the importance of resumption of talks with Pakistani officials regarding bilateral ties.
The Pakistani government has on many occasions reiterated its resolve to push ahead with the $1.5-billion IP gas pipeline project.
According to the project proposal, the pipeline will begin from Iran’s Assalouyeh Energy Zone in the south and stretch over 1,100 km through Iran. In Pakistan, it will pass through provinces of Baluchistan and Sindh but officials now say the route may be changed if China agrees to extension of the project.
A special team has been set up in the Iranian Oil Ministry to specify the method of investment and building credit line for laying the pipeline in Pakistan’s soil.

Custom Office Will Facilitate Border Trade

Head of Iran’s Customs Office Abbas Memarnejad promised to facilitate the trend of goods declaration and release in custom offices, particularly at Iran-Turkey border.
He made the remarks in a meeting with Board of Directors of Association of Iranian Businessmen and Investors in Istanbul, Fars News Agency reported.
Memarnejad underlined that increasing private sector’s activities through facilitating their participation is among the objectives of the government.
During the meeting, Iranian businessmen and economic activists talked about their challenges and called for establishing stability in regulations, decreasing trade obstacles and facilitating foreign exchange transfer as necessary moves to improve mutual ties.
In August in line with expansion of private sector’s presence in the country’s economy, Memarnejad announced that it can start exporting crude supplies.
“The private sector can play a role in crude oil export by setting up a consortium,” Memarnejad said.
Last October, Iranian and Turkish officials in a meeting in Ankara explored avenues to further develop mutual cooperation in the transit and transportation sector.
The latest statistical report released earlier this month showed that the trade exchanges between Iran and Turkey had reached $17.52 billion since the beginning of the current Iranian year (started March 20, 2012).
Turkey imported $8.94 billion worth of goods from Iran, and exported $8.58 billion in goods to the Islamic Republic during this period.

Iran to Build 163MW Plant In Iraq

Iran is ready to construct a power plant, named Heidariya, in Iraq with a capacity to generate 163 megawatts (MW) of electricity for the country’s holy Shiite shrines, an advisor to the Iranian energy minister said on Sunday.
“The credit allocated for the construction of the (163MW) power plant amounts to €75 million and its first phase with the €25 million of credit will come into operation soon,” Ebrahim Rahemi said, Fars News Agency reported.
He said the electricity generated by the power plant will be used by the holy shrines of Karbala city in Southern Iraq and the surplus will be sold to the Iraqi government.
Iran and Iraq have enjoyed growing ties since the overthrow of the former Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, following the 2003 US invasion of the Muslim country.
Both sides are working on a series of projects to take wide strides in the expansion of ties, particularly in economic fields.

Mazandaran Harvests 100,000 Tons of Kiwi

Domestic Economy Desk

Close to 100,000 tons of kiwi has been harvested from the northern province of Mazandaran which is the fruit’s top producer in Iran, said the managing director of Mazandaran Gardeners Association.
Mohammadreza Shabani said the harvest season has ended, and the crop harvested from Mazandaran gardens which has high quality, is kept in cold chains.
No problem exists for kiwi growers in keeping the crop this year (to end March 2013) in light of the government’s support and construction of numerous cold chains, he added.
Kiwi can be stored at cold chains for six months, he said.
Shabani also said that kiwi is exported to Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Iraq, Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, and Persian Gulf littoral states.
Pointing to the existence of 6,000 hectares of area under kiwi cultivation across Mazandaran province, he said currently every kilogram of kiwi is purchased between 6,500 and 7,000 rials from gardeners and sold between 10,000 and 15,000 rials in market. He put the export price for kiwi at between $1.3 and $1.5 in global markets.

Gas Supply to AFZ by Jan 20

Domestic Economy Desk

Gas supply to Iran’s largest greenhouse township in Aras Free Zone (AFZ), East Azarbaijan province, will be completed by Jan. 20, 2013, said the managing director of Aras Free Trade Zone Organization. Sadeq Najafi said the township has been designed in an area of 140 hectares, IRNA reported.
Once the gas supply project will be completed, the trend of administrative operations to establish greenhouse units will accelerate, he said.
The project will be implemented in 101 units—each of them 5,000 sq.m.—and by investing 400 billion rials, he added.
Some 52 hectares of the project have so far been ceded to Iranian, Dutch, and Turkish investors and graduates, the official said.

Oil Output on Rise

Domestic Economy Desk

Oil production capacity will increase to 5.6 million barrels per day (bpd) by the end of the Fifth Five-Year Economic Development Plan (2010-15), said oil minister.
Speaking in the first conference on National Wealth and Sustainable Development on Sunday, Rostam Qassemi said the oil and gas production of the country should hit 5.2 million barrels per day (bpd) and one billion cubic meters respectively by 2015, ISNA reported.
He said some 4 million barrels of oil and 600 million cubic meters of gas are produced in the country per day.
The minister said establishment of National Development Fund (NDF) will help the country reduce its dependence on oil revenues by 30 percent.
He added that with respect to global energy consumption growth, the producing countries should produce 111 million bpd of oil in 2020.
About 80 million barrels of oil and 7 million barrel of gas condensates are produced in the world per day.
Iran holds 12 percent and 17 percent of global oil and gas reserves respectively he said, adding the country ranked first in the world in terms of hydrocarbon reserves.
The minister hoped that more oil and gas reserves will be discovered in the country.
Qassemi went on to say that based on the Fifth Plan, about $300 billion should be invested in the oil sector, adding that development of 27 oilfields shared with the neighboring countries is among the top priorities of the ministry.
Referring to the privileges of petrochemical industry, he emphasized the necessity of NDF’s investment in the oil sector. He put the installed petrochemical production capacity of the country at 50 million tons, saying the figure should hit 110 million tons by end of the Fifth Plan.
The underway petrochemical projects are 10-95 percent complete, the minister said.

Saffron Export

Iran is expected to export 135 tons of saffron worth $400 million in the current year (started March 20).