Iran has been open to foreign investment to expand its oil output.

National Iranian Oil Company and the Italian Edison Company on Wednesday signed a $107 million deal on oil exploration in the 8,500 sq km Dayyer offshore block in the Persian Gulf.
The Italian company is planning to invest 30 million euro over four years to explore and develop the block. More development projects will be undertaken if new reserves are discovered, the Italian company announced, according to MNA.
On December 23, Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari disclosed that Iran was in talks with Edison on exporting gas to Italy.
Iran, which is the world’s fourth largest crude producer, has been open to foreign investment to substantially expand its oil output.
Iran is seeking investments by international oil and gas companies despite US pressure over its peaceful nuclear programs, and has been promoting an international exploration tender for 17 onshore and offshore blocks.
Head of Italian oil major Eni, another Italy-based company producing, supplying and distributing petroleum and natural gas, said in November it will not abandon its contracts in the Islamic state.
Italy is one of Iran’s largest trading partners.

The government earned 110,000 billion rials in tax revenues during March 21-December 21, 2007 which was 106 percent of the target set for the period, announced head of the State Taxation Organization Ali-Akbar Arab-Mazar.
Speaking on the sideline of the first conference on sound administrative performance of taxation system, he hoped that the total tax revenues, projected by the Budget Law for the year to March 21, would be fully materialized, reported MNA.
The official added that the organization will continue implementing the comprehensive tax plan. “Value-added taxation system (VAT) would come into effect from September 23, 2008,“ he said.
Arab-Mazar stated that the organization and guild unions had reached agreement on tax payment, adding the guilds should cooperate with the unions’ officials in this regard. “No figure is available on tax evasions since we do not know who evades taxes, otherwise we would get them to pay their tax dues,“ he concluded.
Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Davoud Danesh-Jafari said earlier that more attention should be paid to collecting taxes particularly its cultural aspects.
He noted that value-added-tax is the basis of taxation systems in more than 100 countries, adding but they also take into account tax exemptions for consumer basket of the poor strata and essential goods.
The minister stated that the Iran’s Comprehensive Tax Scheme makes use of advanced technology to satisfy tax payers and reduce costs involved in tax collection.
He said that taxes not only augment state revenues, but also balance economic policies and distribute wealth among different strata properly. He noted that taxation is the engine of development in deprived regions.

Iran is expected to resume gas exports to Turkey by the beginning of next week, ending a days-long cut forced by a supply crunch, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said.
“I talked to an envoy of (Iranian President Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad. He told me they would resolve this issue by Monday (January 14) at the latest,“ Erdogan said in televised remarks. “I believe they will resume the gas flow by then,“ he was quoted by AFP as saying.
Iran halted gas shipments to Turkey on Monday (January 7), six days after it was forced to slash exports from 20 million cubic meters (706 million cubic feet) a day to 5.0 million cubic meters (177 million cubic feet).
The cut was brought about by a severe cold snap in Iran that peaked domestic consumption and a halt in gas supplies from Turkmenistan to the Islamic Republic.
As a result, Turkey had to stop gas exports to neighboring Greece, media reports said.
Russia’s Gazprom said in a statement Wednesday that it had increased gas supplies to both Turkey and Greece to above previously-contracted levels.
Turkey has been buying gas from Iran via a pipeline from the northwestern Iranian city of Tabriz to Ankara since December 2001.
Meanwhile, members of the Majlis Energy Commission and officials of National Iranian Gas Company and the Oil Ministry met to discuss the issue, said the commission’s Rapporteur Seyyed Emad Hosseini.
He added that members of the commission sought a revision in the Iran-Turkmen gas accord, IRNA reported.
“They believe that pipeline maintenance should be rescheduled,“ he added.
The lawmaker noted that the Oil Ministry has put the peak and average daily gas consumption nationwide at 402 and 380 million cubic meters respectively in the year to March 2008.
Hosseini noted that Iran produces 440 million cubic meters of gas per day, of which 43.5 million cubic meters are exported. “This indicates the problems in gas supplies in winter,“ he stated.

No poultry have so far tested positive for avian flu.

Head of State Veterinary Organization said samples of wild and domestic birds which perished following suspicious respiratory infections resembling bird flu have been sent to Italy for tests. The action was delayed due to New Year holidays, he added.
Mojtaba Norouzi told ISNA on Friday that the birds perished in the vicinity of Anzali International Wetland in Gilan province and an unnamed wetland in Mazandaran province.
The organization would cull poultries in places where birds with suspicious respiratory diseases have been detected. This is in line with precautionary measures taken by the organization and compensations would be paid to owners.
Meanwhile, he said no poultry have so far tested positive for avian flu and people can eat eggs and hens without anxiety.
Norouzi told ISNA that the advice of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education to exercise caution does not mean that the disease has tested positive across the country.
Iran appears on the list of countries in which bird flu has been reported because of the outbreak of the disease among wild swans in Anzali Wetland. No poultry has been identified with the virus.

Some 440,000 hectares of land under pistachio cultivation yielded about 250,000 tons of pistachio in the year to March 2007, said head of the Bureau for Winter Fruits Affairs affiliated to Agricultural Jihad Ministry.
Ali-Akbar Yasemi put the area under pistachio cultivation at 448,000 hectares in the year to March 2008 and expected the output to rise to 280,000-300,000 tons this year, indicating an increase of 10 to 15 percent, ISNA reported.
He said that in the year to March 2007, some 171,000 tons of pistachio valued at $1.068 billion were exported.
During March-November 2007 some 111,500 tons of pistachio valued at $689.4 million were exported, he said, adding that the figures show a growth of 15.12 percent in terms of weight and 14.4 percent in terms of value against the amount for the same period of the previous year.
The official predicted that pistachio exports would go up to 200,000 tons by March 2008.
In view of its unique taste, Iranian pistachio has a special status in global markets, he said hoping that the product would find more target markets through proper marketing and efforts of exporters.
Yasemi referred to low yield in pistachio orchards as one of the problems, attributing it to water restriction, low water quality, use of tradition methods and cultivation in unsuitable regions.
He said that permissible aflatoxin level for pistachio stands between 2ppb and 30 ppb around the world. He put the national alfatoxin level at 15 ppb.

Mega Motor Company began trial production of Tondar90 engines which will be installed on seven models of automobiles, the firm’s managing director announced.
Javad Najmeddin said that the production line for Tondar90, based on Renault standard, and with an initial investment of 150 billion rials, has started operation with the cooperation of Iranian and German engineers.
“Commissioning of this production line will generate 500 jobs as well as save the country a significant amount in hard currency,“ he was quoted by IRIB as saying.
Some 12 percent of the Tondar90 engine are currently manufactured domestically and Mega Motors is ready to increase this to 60 percent in the year to March 2009.
As the only manufacturer of Tondar90 engines in Iran, Mega Motors is planning to produce 2,000 engines by the end of this year. The number is expected to reach 100,000 next year.
The maximum production capacity for Tondar90 engines is said to be 300,000. The company plans to deliver half of its products to Iran’s Saipa Auto Manufacturing Company, with the rest to Iran’s biggest auto manufacturing company, Iran Khodro.
Engineers from Renault have described Iran’s Mega Motors production line as one the best in the world.

Iranian diplomats in Turkey, Sweden and Malaysia have expressed readiness to make foreign investors familiar with investment opportunities in the country’s telecommunications industry.
Announcing this, secretary of the ’International Conference on Investment Opportunities in Iran’s Telecom Sector’, Mehdi Rohaninejad said that an agreement on this was concluded by International Affairs Office of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and Foreign Ministry.
According to the official, missions would invite entrepreneurs from the three countries to attend the international confab aimed at introducing new opportunities in the telecom sector, attracting domestic and foreign investments as well as familiarizing investors with the country’s telecommunication market and opportunities in the sector.
Telecom operators and investors from Russia, France and Sweden have shown interest in participating in the confab slated for January 16, he added.
The one-day gathering, organized by Teyf Scientific-Analytic Group, is to be held in Khajeh Nasir Hall of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting’s International Conference Center in Tehran.
Meanwhile, minister of Communications and Information Technology, Mohammad Soleimani said that foreign investors can buy up to 49 percent of Telecommunication Company of Iran (TCI) shares.
He told Fars news agency that once the government approves block sale of TCI shares, foreign firms can purchase 49 percent of the stakes.
Shares of some state-owned companies are gradually being offered at the stock exchange in line with Article 44 of the Constitution which seeks large-scale privatization in key economic areas.