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JUNE 14, 2015
ECONOMIC NEWS
Iran Hits New
Record in Natural
Gas Production
TEHRAN (Press TV) - Managing
director of the Iranian Gas Transmission Company says the country has
hit a new record in natural gas output by producing a total of two billion
cubic meters of gas per year.
Speaking in a ceremony in the
southern Iranian port city of Bushehr, Mohammad Ali Emam noted
that the annual production of 2 billion cubic meters of gas is a new record for the country.
He expressed hope that the figure
would be further increased this year
as the company aims to boost natural gas production by about 13-14
percent a year.
Emam noted that at present Turkey,
Nakhichevan and the Republic of
Azerbaijan import natural gas from
Iran, adding that new customers will
be added to the trio in the near future.
In late May, Managing Director of
the National Iranian Gas Company
Hamid Reza Araqi announced that
the country has plans to increase its
natural gas production to one billion
cubic meters (bcm) per day by the
end of the Sixth Economic Development Plan (2015-2020).
The country, which sits on the
world’s largest gas reserves, is trying
to enhance gas production by increasing foreign and domestic investment,
especially in its South Pars gas field.
South Pars gas field covers an
area of 9,700 square kilometers,
3,700 square kilometers of which
are in Iran’s territorial waters in the
Persian Gulf. The remaining 6,000
square kilometers are situated in
Qatar’s territorial waters.
The field is estimated to contain
a significant amount of natural gas,
accounting for about eight percent
of the world’s reserves, and ap-
proximately 18 billion barrels of
condensate.
On May 8, a senior gas industry
official said production of natural
gas from the South Pars gas field is
to increase by 7 trillion cubic feet
per day (tcf/d) before the end of the
current Iranian calendar year (ends
March 20, 2016).
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the 20th International Oil,
Gas, Refining and Petrochemical
Exhibition in Tehran, Managing Director of Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC) Ali Akbar Sha’banpour
noted that when the 12th phase of
the field becomes fully operational
this year, it will produce 2.5 tcf/d of
natural gas.
File photo shows a gas refinery
at the South Pars gas field on the
northern coast of Persian Gulf in
Asalouyeh, Bushehr Province, Iran.
US Stocks Go Sideways As
Market Eyes Greece, Fed
NEW YORK (AFP) - Wall Street
stocks chugged through a week light
on US economic data and heavy on
anticipation of news on Greece and
the US Federal Reserve.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 49.38 points (0.28
percent) at 17,898.84, while the
broad-based S&P 500 edged up
1.28 (0.06 percent) to 2,094.11.
The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite
Index shed 17.36 (0.34 percent) to
5,051.10.
“Investors are still very uncertain
as to which way the market will
break,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at S&P Capital
IQ.
“Investors are still concerned
about the very high valuations,
worried about when the Fed will
be raising rates... and they are concerned about what will transpire
regarding Greece.”
The week’s major economic report, May retail sales, jumped a
surprisingly robust 1.2 percent in a
sign US consumers are beginning
to regain confidence after a sluggish first quarter.
That came on the heels of an upbeat May jobs report released last
week.
However, analysts said investors
are cautious over lofty US equity
valuations.
“When the S&P 500 gets over
2,100, it reaches a very stubborn
wall. Institutional investors dig in
their heels,” said Hugh Johnson of
Hugh Johnson Advisors.
“It’s very hard to make the case
for higher stock prices when you’re
staring down the gun barrel of a
hike in interest rates by the Fed.”
Besides the Fed, the endless
Greek debt saga dragged on sentiment, with stocks veering up and
down depending on whether a deal
seemed more or less likely.
The week ended on a sour note
as eurozone officials confirmed
conducting “worst-case” scenarios
based on a Greek default, while the
IMF walked away from talks, saying the Greeks were being unreasonable.
Greece faces a 1.6-billion-euro
($1.8 billion) payment to the IMF
at the end of the month and must
persuade creditors to unlock 7.2
billion euros in international bailout funds.
The week’s most dramatic corporate headlines involved major executive changes at Rupert Murdoch’s
21st Century Fox and Twitter.
At 21st Century Fox, the elder
Murdoch, 84, is to pass on the chief
executive role and leadership of
his far-flung media empire to his
son James and install his other son,
Lachlan, as executive chairman.
The plan is to be presented next
week to the board of directors, a
source familiar with the company
told AFP.
At Twitter, chief executive Dick
Costolo announced he would step
down July 1 following a turbulent
tenure that has aroused criticism
over sluggish growth.
Costolo will hand the reins over
to Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey,
who will lead the company on an
interim basis while the board finds
someone to replace Costolo long
term.
Other major corporate stories included a deal for General Electric
to divest a pair of finance assets to
the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for $12 billion and a
move by Apple to launch “Apple
Music,” a new subscription service
allowing users to stream songs, listen to playlists and connect with
performers.
Nike announced an eight-year
deal with the NBA to become the
exclusive on-court apparel provider for the US basketball league.
Both the Fed and Greece will
stay at the forefront of investors’
minds next week. The calendar
includes a meeting of the Fed’s
monetary policy committee on
Wednesday, followed on Thursday by a meeting of eurozone
finance ministers in Luxembourg
to discuss Greece.
Iran, Hungary Call for
Broadening of Agricultural
Cooperation
TEHRAN (FNA) - Iranian Ambassador to Budapest Mohammad
Reza Morshedzadeh and Hungarian
Agriculture Minister Sándor Fazekas in a meeting in Hungary’s capital on Saturday underlined the need
for the further expansion of bilateral
ties, specially in agricultural fields.
During the meeting in Budapest
today, the Iranian envoy and the
Hungarian agriculture minister
discussed holding exhibitions and
exchanging visits by the two countries’ officials and experts.
The Iranian ambassador pointed
to Iran’s satisfactory agricultural
status and also Iran-Hungary relations, and underlined the need for
exchange of visits by the two countries’ experts and researchers.
He reiterated that exchanging research visits by Iranian and Hungarian experts will benefit both
Tehran and Budapest.
“The active presence of both sides
in their agricultural exhibitions and
visits of the two countries’ experts
to the other side’s research and scientific institutes will surely leave a
positive impact on the broadening
of mutual cooperation in the fields
prioritized by both sides,” Morshedzadeh said.
The Hungarian agriculture minister, for his part, said that Iran enjoys many capabilities in the farming and agricultur products sectors.
Fazekas also called for the transfer of Iran’s experience in water resources management, environment
protection and exchange of visits
by the two countries’ agriculture
ministers.
In October 2013, Iranian Foreign
Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif
and his Hungarian counterpart János Martonyi, in a meeting in New
York, pledged to do their best to
bolster the bilateral relations between Tehran and Budapest in all
fields.
During the meeting held on the
sidelines of the 68th UN General
Assembly session, the two top diplomats stressed that there are great
potentials for further expansion of
mutual cooperation between the
two countries.
Zarif expressed Iran’s readiness
for advancing relations with Hungary in various areas, including
parliamentarian affairs and ex-
change of visits.
The Hungarian foreign minister,
for his part, said that he believed
ties with Iran should be expanded
especially in the areas of academic,
scientific, educational, trade and
agricultural sectors.
In December, Head of the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce’s
Office in Yerevan announced that
the chamber was planning to set
up an office in Tehran in the near
future.
“The Hungarian Chamber of
Commerce will launch a branch
office in Tehran soon,” Andranik
Arashkian said during a visit to
Aras Free Zone in the Northwestern parts of Iran in late December.
Arashkian and members of the
chamber of commerce Hungary
visited the Aras Free Zone to study
the investment opportunities of the
Iranian trade zone.
Arashkian noted that the Hungarian
Chamber of Commerce has 20 representative offices across the world,
and said, “The developed countries
that have a bright future are the target
of the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce (for investment).”
Iran Seriously Expanding
Russia Trade Ties
TEHRAN (IRNA) – Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh says Iran seriously plans to forge “long-term”
economic relations with Russia
which, like the Islamic Republic, is
under Western sanctions.
“We want to have long-term economic relations with the Russians.
Our plan is to seriously expand
economic and technical ties with
Russia,” he told the news weekly
Seda (Voice) published on Saturday.
“There is political will at the
highest level in Iran to expand
economic relations with Russia.
I also think it is good to develop
Iran’s economic ties with Russia,
China, India and emerging economic states,” Zangeneh said.
The minister said Iran and Russia
plan to cooperate on implementation of development projects and
trade of goods, but there are also
other areas for business.
“We can work with the Russians
to implement railway projects and
part of the work in power plants.
We can buy some oil equipment
and basic goods from the Russians. They have also some technologies in the mining sector.”
Iran and Russia have recently
decided to start shipment of the
Iranian oil to the market. The arrangement is for Russia to sell
500,000 barrels of Iranian oil per
day.
Zangeneh said under the agreement, Iran is about to get cash and
Russian goods and services for
the oil which is sold.
On Monday, Russian Energy
Minister Alexander Novak said
that it was too early to talk about
the start. Russian officials meanwhile retracted their earlier announcement that they had begun
grain sales to Iran.
Iranians generally view Russia
with caution because of their uneasy past.
Zangeneh, however, said, “The
Russians do not have the history
of unconventional economic activities like those by the Westerners in any area while in some areas, their work is acceptable and
good.”
Officials say a new chapter has
begun in trade ties amid steppedup commercial relationship to
counter Western sanctions.
For its part, Iran has prepared
three ports in the Caspian Sea and
added six ships to its fleet for cargo trade with Russia following an
agreement signed in March.
It has created a capacity to carry
up to 6,500 metric tons of freight
per year in the Caspian Sea, local
media have said.
Iran Mercantile Exchange Trades Over
$236mln of Commodities
TEHRAN (IME Intl Affairs)
- Iran Mercantile Exchange witnessed 568,000T of various commodities with the total value
of more than 263 million USD
in spot markets which shows
growth in volume and value
for 90% and 50% respectively
- during the week ending up to
11th June,.
According to the report from
IME international affairs and PR,
during this week in agricultural
trading floor, 5,850 MT of sugar,
21,435 MT of maize, 3,810 MT
of rice and 500MT wheat were
traded.
Moreover, in Domestic and Export metals and minerals trading
floor of IME, 286 KT of products
with the total value of more than
126 million USD were traded. In
this floor, 177 KT of steel sections, 100 KT of iron ore, 4,550
T of copper, 140 T of Molybdenum Concentrate, 4,080 T Aluminums, as well as 25 kg of Gold
bullion,were traded by customers.
Also, in Domestic and Export
oil and petrochemical trading
floor of IME, 249 KT of dif-
ferent commodities with the
total value of 121 million USD
were sold. In this floor, 82 KT
of bitumen, 32 KT of polymer
products, 106 KT of VB, 10 KT
of lube-cut, 13 KT of chemical
products, 708 MT of insulation,
3,570 MT of sulfur and 50 MT
of feedstock were traded in this
trading floor.
It is worth noting, trading in
VB, Bitumen, insulation, chemicals, sugar, rice, copper, Molybdenum Concentrate and steel has
experienced growth during this
week.