Iran has ruled out supplying natural gas to Dana Gas unless the UAE company agrees to pay higher prices. Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari said an alternative pipeline is under construction in Iran to divert gas destined for Sharjah-based Dana to the Iranian market if the two sides fail to reach a deal involving higher prices, Emirates Business 24/7 reported.
He said that the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) had already carried out early engineering and design work on the alternative pipeline to supply the port of Asalouyeh, where it could be used for gas re-injection.
“Iran’s High Economic Council has approved the plan to use the gas domestically. We are already working on the pipeline. If we do not reach an agreement... for a higher price, the gas will be sent to Asalouyeh,“ Nozari told the Norwegian international oil and gas weekly, Upstream, in an interview to be published this week.
In 2001, Crescent Petroleum, which co-owns Dana, signed an agreement with NIOC to import gas from the offshore Khuff reservoir associated with the Salman oilfield.
But there have been repeated calls from Iranian officials to cancel the deal because of what they say are giveaway prices negotiated with Crescent.
NIOC officials said the first supplies from Khuff should start in the second half of 2008 leaving time to revise the price formula with Crescent, which is controlled by Sharjah. Except for a gas production platform and living quarters, all elements of the Salman-Khuff field development are complete.
It will take six months for the two platforms to be completed, according to NIOC officials.
Iranian official sources said the agreement calls for the supply of about 116 billion cubic meters of natural gas to the UAE over 25 years, with the initial sale of 330 million cubic feet a day rising to 600 million in Sharjah’s Hamriyah Free Zone. Iran’s gas sales were originally scheduled for January 2005.
The contract to send gas to the UAE was signed following long negotiations between NIOC subsidiary Petroiran Development Company (Pedco), the operator of Salman-Khuff, and Crescent, when oil and gas prices were low. Iranian gas supplies will be marketed in the UAE by Dana Gas.

Davoud Danesh-Jafari

The government has no intention of increasing tax rates and putting more pressure on the people, observed Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Davoud Danesh-Jafari.
Speaking in the fifth gathering of the country’s directors for tax affairs, he stated that the increase in tax revenues is aimed at bringing about economic prosperity, reported IRNA.
A large number of economic enterprises are not covered by Taxation Law and benefit from exemptions, whereas if the jobs are ceded to the private sector, the government can collect taxes from them on time.
He said that turning a major part of economic activities over to the private sector would lead to an increase in tax revenues.
Referring to reducing tax evasions as the other objective of government, Danesh-Jafari stated that more attention should be paid on ways of collecting taxes particularly its cultural aspects.
He noted that value-added-tax (VAT) is the basis of taxation systems in more than 100 countries, adding but they consider tax exemptions for consumer basket of the poor strata and the basic goods as well.
The minister stated that the Iran’s Comprehensive Tax Scheme makes use of advanced technology to satisfy tax payers and reduce the costs of tax collection.
He said that use of taxation systems not only augments state revenues, but also balances economic policies and distribute wealth among different strata properly.
He noted that taxation systems are the engines of development in deprived regions.
Danesh-Jafari said that for the first time tax income exceeded the targets set for the year to March 2008.
State revenues from direct and indirect taxes increased by 37.3 percent in the first half of the current Iranian year to March 2008 compared to the amount for the same period last year, reaching 98 trillion rials which is 99.4 percent of the target set in the 2007-2008 Budget Law.
Direct tax revenues reached 68 trillion rials, showing a 45-percent growth compared to the sum for the same period last year.
This is while indirect tax revenues reached to 29 trillion rials--a rise of 21 percent from the figure for the same period of the previous year.

An Iraqi delegation will visit Tehran next week to make Iranian entrepreneurs familiar with investment in Iraq’s oil industry.
The 30-member team will include officials from Iraq’s Oil Ministry as well as traders from northern and southern regions of the neighboring country, Iran-Iraq Secretariat of Economic Cooperation reported in a fax sent to Iran Daily on Sunday.
During its weeklong stay, the delegation, due in the capital on December 25, will visit power plants, petrochemical industries, upstream and downstream oil sectors, refineries and oil-related building facilities.
Head of the delegation Mahdi Saleh Alvan expressed hope that the visit will provide Iraqis a chance to become familiar with the potentials of Iranian companies involved in oil development project.
Trade between the two countries currently stands at two billion dollars, of which 97 percent pertains to exports from the Islamic Republic.
Iran-Iraq trade exchanges reached $1.2 billion last year of which Tehran imported only $16 million worth of goods from Baghdad.
Many domestic experts have emphasized that Iran can play a major role in Iraq’s reconstruction.
Iraqi market badly needs technical and engineering services. Iranian engineers can have a major share in Iraq’s reconstruction once they bolster their activities in the war-ravaged country and sign new contracts.

Tehran needs over 600,000 new jobs within the next five years.

Labor Minister Mohammad Jahromi said the only solution for Tehran’s employment and housing woes is to move the seat of government out of the 12-million-strong megapolis.
The minister told reporters in Tehran’s Governorate General’s Office on Sunday, “I believe Tehran’s problems are rooted not just in the megalopolis itself but from other provinces including major and small cities as well as rural regions.“
Problems facing urban regions and rural districts sending migrants to the capital should first be solved to help resolve Tehran’s unemployment headache, the minister was quoted by IRNA as saying.
Jahromi noted that the megapolis needs over 600,000 new jobs within the next five years.
Rural migration of unemployed people to Tehran in search of jobs increases the capital’s demand for job each year, he said, stressing, “I believe Tehran’s employment, housing, social and cultural pressure will not be relieved unless the capital is relocated.“
He noted that the proposal has been put on the agenda of the policy-setting High Housing Council.
Tehran is the largest city of Iran and Southwest Asia.
More than half of Iran’s industry is based in Tehran. Industries include the manufacturing of automobiles, electronics and electrical equipment, military weaponry, textiles, sugar, cement, and chemical products.
Tehran is a sprawling city at the foot of the Alborz mountain range with an immense network of highways unparalleled in western Asia. Since the 20th century, Tehran faced a large migration of people from all around Iran.
Today, the city contains a mix of various ethnic and religious minorities, and is filled with many historic mosques, churches, synagogues and Zoroastrian fire temples.
About 30 percent of Iran’s public-sector workforce and 45 percent of large industrial firms are located in Tehran with almost half of them working for the government.

First International Decorative Stones Exhibition will be held in Tehran January 8-11.

Although Iran’s mines produce over 10 million tons of decorative stones annually, countries such as Greece and Turkey play a greater role in global trade in such stones, said secretary of Iran Stone Association ahead of the First International Decorative Stones Exhibition which is to be organized in collaboration with the association.
Zein-ol Abedin Najafi-Tabrizi elaborated that through proper attention, Iran Stone Association can play a major role in publicizing the potentials of the decorative stone industry both at home and abroad, Fars news agency wrote.
He added that given its abundant mining reserves and the top rank in private sector involvement in decorative stone industry, Iran can take steps such as offering customs exemptions, providing export incentives and banking facilities as well as improving the industry’s equipment and facilities to assume a greater role in the industry at the domestic and global levels.
The official recalled that as per Article 5 of Chamber of Commerce, Mines and Industries’ Law, the association was establish with the aim of organizing the decorative stone industry, developing mines and promoting international trade in decorative stones.
Najafi-Tabrizi listed the main duties and goals of the association as follows: holding specialized domestic and international exhibitions, forging scientific collaboration with international associations, publishing specialized books and articles, launching databanks for members, holding training courses, increasing productivity in mines and stone-processing factories, establishing research centers and preparing the grounds for getting a greater share in global market for decorative stones.
He said that the exhibition slated for January 8-11 will be held in an area of 10,000 square meters at Tehran International Fairgrounds.
Italy, Japan, UK, Austria, China, Turkey and India will take part in the event, he concluded.

Sanctions against Iran have hurt German companies’ more than any other country, Deutsche Welle reported.
Germany’s Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology has recently announced due to a decline in trade with Iran about 10,000 job opportunities were lost in Germany, IRNA quoted DW-radio as saying.
And in case of tougher sanctions the figure would reach 100,000, the ministry added.
Jurgen R. Thumann, head of the Association of German Industry, earlier said that through sanctions (against Iran) Germany would sustain heavy losses while Asian countries benefit.
The sanctions have left visible traces behind in Germany’s exports to Iran, the German Office for Foreign Trade stated.
According to the Federal Statistical Office, German exports to Iran decreased by 18 percent in the first seven months of 2007 compared with the figure for the same period last year. In equipment and specialized machinery sector the decline is reportedly 40 percent.
Many German politicians believe that economic sanctions against Tehran hurt German companies’ extensive trade ties with Iran.
Instead of punishing companies that do business with Iran, negotiations should focus on taking advantage of standing economic ties, EU Parliamentarian Daniel Caspary, a member of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, told Deutsche Welle earlier.
“I think we need to use our good economic relationships to stay in contact with the people, business people and politicians in Iran and to talk about the situation,“ he said.
“I am of the opinion that countries like the US or France are pushing Germany to limit its economic ties. We should not accept that.“
Germany, in fact, does more business with Iran than any other European country, with annual German-Iranian trade volume estimated to be about 5 billion euros ($7.1 billion).
At least 1,700 German companies are active in Iran, including household names like Siemens and BASF which have been in the country for decades. Some 75 percent of all small and mid-size companies in Iran are outfitted with German technology.

Khajeh Nasir Tousi Engineering University has designed a robot with the support of the National Iranian Oil Company, an associate professor of the university said.
Alireza Fatehi told IRNA Saturday that the robot, which is capable of traversing rough terrain, is equipped with remote control. It may be used in areas near refineries and pipeline which are difficult for humans to access.
Underlining that the robot can easily walk upstairs, he expressed hope that production to reach industrial scale.
Putting the cost of designing the 50-cm robot at 400 million rials, the expert said it would become complete once its sensors for remote controlling are installed.
The robot, he said, can help lower expenses for exploration by conducting measurements, collecting and sending data.
Fatehi recalled that the project to make the robot began in 2005 and ended in 2007, adding that all parts of the robot excluding devices such as its special camera and laptop are made domestically.