A South Korean man checks a $100 note at the head office of the Korea Exchange Bank in Seoul. (File Photo)

Venezuela and Iran are pursuing inclusion of a paragraph in the final declaration of this weekend’s OPEC to express concern by member states over the fall of the US dollar.
Member states should express concern over ’the continued depreciation of the US dollar’ in the final declaration, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said in a written proposal on Friday.
Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez supported the move, while Saudi Arabia said this could accelerate the fall of the weak US currency.
Commenting on the issue prior to the summit, economy minister maintained that oil revenues of OPEC member states would decline in value due to weaker US currency.
Davoud Danesh-Jafari told ISNA that under the present circumstances while oil is edging toward $100 per barrel, it seems the treasuries of members of producer group are flushing with petrodollars. “But the fact is that due to depreciation of the greenback, oil revenues have fallen in value.“
The minister recalled that Iran proposed Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to establish a bank in cooperation with member states.
“OPEC members are currently earning close to $650 billion in oil revenues. If such sums are deposited in one bank, it can have huge benefits for the economy of members and the world.“
He, however, stressed that the body currently has a development fund which assists poor and also developing countries.
“However an OPEC bank can have better function and become a major player among international banks.“
Iran has already moved away from the dollar and now prices nearly all of its exports in local currency, meaning most of its revenues are in euros and yen.
The fall of the US dollar, which has declined by about 15 percent in 12 months, has affected the revenues of OPEC members because most of them price and sell their oil exports in the greenback.

Executive director of the International Olive Oil Council (IOOC), Habib Al-Seid recently visited Iran to inspect areas under olive cultivation. The event was seen as a milestone for the Iranian agriculture industry. The visit was useful in providing producers with international information in the field and giving domestic producers a chance to interact with other olive oil producers.
Meanwhile, Iran heads the 95th gathering of IOOC which opened in Madrid, Spain on Thursday.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, deputy agricultural jihad minister for horticultural affairs, Mohammad Reza Jahansouz stated that the ministry is striving to increase the area under olive cultivation. He added that Iran is also trying to include olive in the food basket of Iranians.
Iran, which began producing olive oil on an industrial scale 13 years ago, is implementing a state-planned program by bringing the area under olive cultivation to 120,000 hectares. Meanwhile, olive oil production units have increased from six units in three provinces to 36 units in ten provinces. Olive oil has been produced in Iran using traditional method which is still common particularly in the northern city of Roudbar, Gilan province. Since this cannot meet domestic demand, olive oil has to be imported to supply local needs.
According to official figures, annual production of olive oil stands at seven to eight thousand tons which is only five percent of the total production in Asia and 0.2 percent of the 2.5 million tons produced worldwide.
The same figures show that in view of its low production, Iran’s ranking in world olive oil market is not significant. Olive oil is in demand throughout the world and that is why it is considered valuable and plays an important role in the global economy.
In addition, olive oil is good for health and is always recommended by organizations such as FAO. Olive oil is expected to be put in the household shopping basket with the help of the UN by 2010.
Olive oil, due to its role in improving people’s health, is a rich source of nutrition and is globally manufactured on large-scale.
Although Iran started producing olive oil almost 13 years ago and the industry has improved to some extent, it is yet to be consumed extensively in this country.
The per capita olive oil consumption in Iran increased from 30 grams in 1993 to 200 grams in 2006 while the per capita consumption of this product in Italy, Greece, Portugal, Spain, and France is 12, 15, 12, 11, and 15 kilograms, respectively.
Once olive was commonly consumed in Iran. However, due to various reasons--the most important being the availability of other kinds of oils in the market which pushed this beneficial and healthy oil to the sidelines, its production fell sharply. Now, the Agriculture Jihad Ministry’s policy suggests that olives and olive oil should be produced not only to meet domestic demand but also to make its export possible. Interactions between domestic and international olive oil producers as well as international bodies such as the International Olive Oil Council could help Iran achieve its goals to become one of the major producers of olive oil in the world.

Iran appears to be pushing ahead with its third major liquefied natural gas project, known as Iran LNG, with the assistance of European companies.
Last week, Ali Kheirandish, the managing director of Iran LNG Company, was reported as saying that one Chinese and four European companies were in talks to secure liquefied natural gas supplies from the project.
Iranian officials are saying they expect the construction of the 10-million-ton per year capacity plant to be completed by 2010.
Iran has already signed a $585-million contract with an engineering consortium comprising of two Iranian companies and an Italian company, to build a treatment, or gas ’sweetening’, plant for the Iran LNG project.
APS Engineering, a small, private Italian engineering company that has worked for a variety of clients including Eni, the Italian oil and gas multinational, told the Financial Times it was the Italian company in the consortium.
This contract was awarded just days after the design plans for the plant were submitted to Iranian officials by another consortium, made up of a German company, Linde, Hyundai of South Korea, and Snamprogetti, an Eni subsidiary. The design contract was initially agreed as far back as 2002.
Iran has the world’s second biggest gas reserves, but has failed to develop its huge South Pars gas field as fast as it would like.
Royal Dutch Shell, Total and Repsol have stakes in Iran’s other two main LNG projects also.
In Saudi Arabia on Thursday, Gholamhossein Nozari, oil minister, said US sanctions against Iran would have no impact on the country’s crude oil and natural gas production plans.
Paulo Scaroni, Eni’s chief executive, told the FT this week Eni had ’no intention’ of pulling out of Iran.
Other companies are, however, taking a bolder stance when it comes to Iran LNG. Union Fenosa, the Spanish energy company, says its subsidiary, Socoin, was awarded a 32.5-million-euro engineering contract for Iran LNG in August.
OMV, the Austrian oil and gas company, in April signed a preliminary agreement with Tehran for a stake in Iran LNG, but this is yet to be finalized. “Our interest in the Iran LNG project lies on the table,“ it said.

The first batch of the Tu-204 airliners is expected to be delivered in 2009.

Russia’s Ilyushin Finance plans to sign a preliminary contract with Iran Air Tour at the Dubai Air Show on Monday to supply Iran with 30 Tupolev 204 (Tu-204-100) aircraft, a source close to negotiations said on Friday, RIA Novosti reported.
The source said Ilyushin had already signed a contract to supply Iran with five Tu-204-100 airliners at the MAKS-2007 air show near Moscow in August, and is now planning to sign a preliminary contract with the Iran Air Tour airline on November 19.
The first batch of the Tu-204 medium-haul airliners designed to accommodate 210 passengers is expected to be delivered in 2009.
The Tupolev Tu-204 is a twin-engine medium- range Russian airliner capable of carrying 212 passengers. First introduced in 1989, it is considered to be broadly equivalent to the Boeing 757.
Ilyushin Finance deals with the financial and operational leasing of Russian-made civil aircraft, as well as providing consulting services. It has a 38 percent stake in Russia’s 90 percent state-owned United Aircraft Corporation, which incorporates commercial and military aircraft makers such as Sukhoi, Ilyushin, and Tupolev, as well as companies involved in distribution, including Aviaexport.
Iranian airliners are grappling with financial difficulties and the US-imposed flight bans have aggravated the situation.
Minister of Road and Transportation Mohammad Rahmati earlier announced that Iran would purchase passenger planes from non-western aircraft manufacturing companies, especially Russians, to renovate its decrepit aviation fleet.

An official at the National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) said that Iran plans to almost double its natural gas production to 200 billion cubic meters a year by 2012.
“We are investing heavily in developing our gas sector, and increasing capacity, despite the hurdles that are facing us,“ Saeed Ghavampour, head of NIGC’s strategic studies told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview.
Iran currently produces about 110 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year, including 12 billion cubic meters which are exported to Turkey and Armenia, Ghavampour said.
Meanwhile, the official said negotiations on the stalled one billion dollar Crescent Petroleum agreement to supply the state of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates with gas piped from Iran’s Salman field have resumed.
The deal, which stalled over a pricing dispute, is expected to be signed within six months, Ghavampour stated.
“The (Iranian) government said the negotiators had underestimated the price of Iranian gas and negotiations have started again to agree on a new pricing mechanism,“ he said.
Once the deal is finalized, it would then take around 18 months to build the infrastructure to supply the gas, which could be up to 30 million cubic meters a day, he said.

Increase in wages and prices of raw materials have been blamed for a drop in handwoven carpet export.

Export of hand-woven carpet, which is the symbol of Iranian culture and civilization, has been following a downward trend recently, observed deputy commerce minister.
Shojaoddin Bazargani attributed this to the emergence of factory-made carpets instead of traditional ones, new models and change of customers’ preferences. The official referred to the rise in wages and increase in prices of raw materials as other factors responsible for this, reported ISNA.
Five million Iranians are involved in the handmade carpet industry and no sector in the country creates job for such large number of the people.
He said that the competitive global atmosphere is hard for the country, adding the Commerce Ministry has urged finding a solution to the obstacles and remove the problems facing Iranian National Carpet Center.
Bazargani advised weavers to produce carpets in accordance with the taste of customers and offer more variety.
He regretted that weavers from countries such as China, Pakistan and Afghanistan imitating Iranian designs.
Such imitation would mislead foreign customers and make them lose confidence in Persian carpets. In the long-run, this would also be detrimental to the country’s original carpet-weaving craft.
Meanwhile, head of Iran’s National Carpet Center Morteza Faraji said that that Iranian Carpet Committee has adopted a mechanism to make the carpet production target-oriented, IRIB wrote.
Morteza Faraji explained that based on the initiative, the carpets would be produced as per orders from customers and in accordance with market demand.
Regarding the intellectual ownership law, he said the once Iran joins World Trade Organization, the law would be implemented. “However, until that time, we face problems in implementing the law,“ he added.
He continued that once the regional registration law is implemented, no country can copy Iranian designs. Faraji elaborated that about 29 regions of Iran have been brought under the law and registered by the Industrial Ownership Department in an effort to prevent other nations copying Iranian designs.

The 6,000-ton topside of Khouf Production Platform (KPP) as the largest topside project of Salman oil and gas field was loaded by Iran Offshore Industries Company (Sadra) in southern province of Bushehr last Wednesday.
The topside and its jacket, which form the largest platform among national oil and gas projects, have been designed and manufactured domestically.
Public Relations Office of Petroiran Development Company quoted EPC2 project manager as saying that preliminary loading operation of the platforms began on Tuesday and has continued without stoppage.
Hamid Mousavi explained that loading from KPP was conducted through push-pull mechanism.
Highlighting that the platform would weigh 7,500 tons, he said that by taking the jacket into account, the total weight of the platform would reach 10,000 tons. He put the height of KPP platform at 40 meters.
Mousavi elaborated that KPP topside would initially produce gas extracted from Dalan gas field wells.
About 550 million cubic foot of gas per day (CFD) is transferred to Siri Island in Persian Gulf through undersea pipeline, he added.
The official pointed out that KPP platform has been installed using a float-over method. This is while the other platforms were installed through crane-lift method, he added.
Salman gas field is situated near Siri Island in the Persian Gulf.
While Iran has not yet begun extracting gas from Salman gas field, the United Arab Emirates is producing 540 million cubic foot per day (CFD) from the field, Fars news agency reported last July.
Salman gas field is shared by Iran and the UAE. Some 70 percent of the offshore gas field are located in Iranian waters and the remaining 30 percent in the Persian Gulf Arab sheikhdom.