Iran

Extending the OPEC cuts beyond their current expiry date at the end of 2018 would seem unnecessary if oil prices keep rising, Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Zangeneh told the Iranian […]

Specialist renewable energy investor Quercus will invest over half a billion euros in a solar power project in Iran, with construction to start in the first half of 2018, the company’s chief executive told Reuters.

The planned 600-megawatt (MW) plant, located in central Iran, will be the sixth largest globally, behind projects of up to 1.5 gigawatts (GW) in China and India. The work is expected to take three years, with the project coming online in 100 MW phases every six months, Quercus said of its first project outside Europe.

The administration of President Hassan Rouhani in a cabinet meeting on Sunday approved a bill to switch Iran’s national currency from rial to toman, an official said here on Monday. The secretary of the Cabinet Mohsen Haji Mirzaei said the issue had been scrutinized in the government’s economic commission during the past six months. He added the move aims to facilitate the transactions by the public. The move is aimed at improving the performance of banking sector, he added.

Some time ago this Newsletter predicted an oil price of US $50 per barrel in the short term (see Newsletter 92 of 22.01.2015) and possibly prices later ranging from $60 to $65. American shale oil producers can now make profits at $50 to $55 a barrel in the Eagle Ford Basin and a bit more in the Bakken fields while those in the Permian Basin can do well at $30 a barrel. The prediction of an oil price at about $50 has thus proven to be quite accurate so far. Regarding the future for oil prices, a cap of $60 to $65 seems to be fairly safe as a prediction. The Americans will increase production as soon as the price reaches $55 a barrel or even before that.

Oil price is rallying in the opening day of the meeting of OPEC in Algeria; Brent and WTI mark both fell around 1.50 percent, after morning’s declaration, made by Iran’s oil minister, Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, who seems to have erased the little chance of a deal today for a freeze or cut production of crude oil.