Petroenergy Information Network

A message from “Iran-with-celebrated-culture” to Miliband

2010-03-31T08:10:00.000-07:00

British foreign minister David Miliband in an article for New York Times has outlined the situation regarding Iran’s nuclear program and the way forward for the world to deal with it.

He has argued that “there are many Irans” one of which is “an Iran seen in a highly educated, entrepreneurial people, with a celebrated culture and civilization.”

Describing the other Irans as he argues, The Minister draws a dark and unpleasant picture of Iran: “one whose economy is a mess” , one “that According to the I.M.F. has the highest brain drain in the world” , “one that destabilizes its neighborhood by supporting terrorism” , and one “whose regime talks of winning the battle for technology when it launches worms into space 40 years after man went to the moon and claims to be a defender of human rights while imprison, beat, shot in the streets and execute after show trials the Iranians who assert their basic freedoms.”

The writer of these lines is not a political activist either pro or anti regime. I am an Iranian journalist from the so called “Iran with celebrated culture”. We could argue about your allegations against Iran for hours, but this not the point here. I also ignore the acrimonious words about the technological advances of my country. But as an Iranian I can not ignore the counterfeiting of the cultural and civilizational heritage of my ancient land, Persia.

Mr. Foreign minister of Great Britain , as an educated man as you suppose to be especially in the field of history and foreign law and relations, you are supposed to speak and write with correct words and phrases when it comes to naming places which have long historical background. In your long article about Iran, once you have mentioned “Gulf countries”. Please as a high official of the revered and accountable government of England, explain why you utter a fake and deficient word instead of the real name of a place which is registered in the most ancient maps and documents: “Persian Gulf”. Is it because you forgot something or you are aware of some new historical findings which is only accessible to you and some other media which use the fake word. I am not familiar with international relations and strategic bargaining as you are. But don’t you think that you are altering and hijacking the heritage of a nation for sake of courting some other countries which happen to be oil-dollar-rich and maybe of some strategic importance to you, what do you call it?

Mr. Miliband Iran may be a country with economic problems, a country that suffers brain drain and some or many other problems, but none of these give your excellency an excuse to rub the history of a nation at least as ancient as yours.

Iraq oil revenues dip despite record exports

2010-03-23T07:09:00.000-07:00

BAGHDAD — Iraqi oil revenues dipped in February on slightly lower oil prices despite the highest level of exports in 20 years, the oil ministry said on Tuesday.
"Revenue was 4.229 billion dollars, based on an average price of 73.4 dollars per barrel and exports of 57.9 million barrels," ministry spokesman Assem Jihad told AFP.
Iraq had revenues of 4.44 billion dollars in January, based on oil prices of 73.97 dollars per barrel.
Jihad said 45.2 million barrels were shipped from the southern terminal of Basra in February, while the remaining 12.7 million barrels were exported from the country's northern fields in Kirkuk.
The oil ministry said at the beginning of March that exports in February had reached 2.069 million barrels per day, the highest level since Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait two decades ago.
With an estimated 115 billion barrels, Iraq has the world's third largest proven oil reserves behind only Saudi Arabia and Iran. Its oil revenues account for around 85 percent of government income.
Since November, Baghdad has signed contracts with foreign firms to develop 10 oil fields around the country, with the aim of raising its output, currently at 2.4 million bpd, to between 10 and 12 million bpd.
AFP

Iran remains defiant over oil industry

2008-12-24T06:12:00.000-08:00

Published: December 22 2008 - Financial Times

Gholamhossein Nozari should be in a grim, panicked mood. As the oil minister in Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad’s government, he has been battling the mounting pressure of international sanctions, which have deterred investment in Iran’s oil industry.
Now, collapsing oil prices are threatening the government’s ability to shore up the economy and maintain popular support ahead of next June’s presidential election.
Indeed, for many western officials, the only consolation amid the economic gloom is that the downturn spells trouble for Iran’s economy, and therefore undermines the fundamentalist president’s chances of re-election.
But Mr Nozari displays none of the alarm which you might expect of him. Nibbling on pistachios in a London hotel room, where he was last week attending an oil conference, he is calm and self-assured.
Solidarity has grown among Opec members, he says, and so they are likely to stick to the production cuts they committed to at their meeting in Algeria earlier in the week, and this should start to drive oil prices back up.
He refuses to be drawn on the oil price that Iran needs to balance its budget – some analysts estimate it is as high as $90 a barrel – insisting instead that the country’s “needs” were sure to be met.
Although the government is said to have already been regularly raiding the oil stabilisation fund, which saves revenues for tough times, Mr Nozari says there is still “plenty” of money saved. On investment too, he says the fact that western companies have stayed away from Iran, as the nuclear dispute has raised the country’s political risk, has not been crippling.
The Iranian parliament has allocated 3 per cent of oil revenues to local investment, which he says has been enough to meet immediate needs.
What about the necessity of attracting western technology? “We’ve been producing oil and gas for 100 years and we have very good experience in development,” the minister says.
A deal agreed in 2007 with China’s Sinopec to develop the Yadavaran oil field and another gas development agreement with Malaysia’s SKS are on track, he adds.
“I’ve visited the fields and seen the work. There’s engineering and site preparation work under way,” he says.
Unlike some other Iranian officials, who admit that sanctions are having an impact, Mr Nozari insists that sanctions are an “obsolete tool”.
Iranian companies, however, are finding it increasingly difficult to secure lines of credit as banking sanctions imposed by the US bite.
There are also reports that Iran is resorting more and more to barter deals, even for petrol imports. Because of underinvestment in its refineries, Iran is forced to import about a third of its domestic fuel consumption, and the government has started a system of rationing to curb demand.
Mr Nozari claims that barter is only a tiny proportion of total trade and that Iran has found many ways to limit the impact of financial sanctions. “We don’t think we’re being sanctioned,” he says. “We can buy whatever we want.”
He says the petrol rationing system had reduced consumption and the government was planning to cut it further by removing subsidies, possibly even before the June presidential elections.
Mr Nozari’s statements reflect the defiant face which Iran likes to project abroad. But his attitude also suggests Iranian confidence that it can confront the current challenges from a position of strength.
When asked about his hopes for an improvement in Iran-US relations, following the election of Barack Obama, Mr Nozari says: “We are getting stronger in the world day by day and we believe that the US has gotten weaker.” It is therefore for the US to “choose if they want to change their behaviour”, he says.