Integration of Iran into European markets via Turkey could be a major success for both nations.

Only Iran can balance Russia’s monopoly in supplying natural gas to European markets and carry its reserves to Europe through Turkey, an energy security analyst told the Turkish ’Daily News’.
He underlined that a recent alliance between Ankara and Tehran would change the global energy balance.
“In fact, Turkey has no intention of challenging Russia which provides 65 percent of its natural gas. But it is Russia that dislikes Turkey’s moves to diversify its sources. Both countries should see that no regional energy project is possible without their cooperation,“ stated Faruk Demir, who also has good connections with Turkey’s Energy Ministry.
According to Demir, Turkey’s energy policy has recently entered into its third phase of “being a proactive global energy actor“. In the first two phases, Turkey’s policy was based on supplying its own energy needs and participating mainly in US-initiated pipeline projects like Nabucco or transferring Caspian gas to southern Europe. But since 2006 Turkey has drawn up its own plans to implement its own energy policy that includes two-stage programs.
One is a terminal program; the other is a corridor program. Turkey is considering establishing four energy terminals in Ceyhan, a port in southern Anatolia; one in Izdir, an eastern Anatolian town on the Iranian border; one in Silopi, a southeastern Anatolian province close to the Iraqi border and one in Aliaca, a port on the Aegean coast.
“For example in the Izdir energy terminal, we could jointly build a refinery and a power plant depending on the development of our cooperation with Iran. These terminals will be similar to industrial zones where we will provide investors with incentives,“ he said.
However, Turkey’s main target in this program is to promote Ceyhan as a regional energy hub with a set of plants. “Within 20 years, 5 percent of the global oil and 3 percent of natural gas will flow to world markets via Ceyhan,“ Demir said.
Turkey’s energy deal with Iran is full of question marks for many, including the US and other key energy players. However, for Demir, relation between two neighbors is not surprising. “Iran is one of the top five countries in oil production and gas reserves. Let’s just consider how the global oil balances would shift if a new pipeline between Iran’s Tabriz and Turkey’s Ceyhan were to be built?“
Demir states that it is just an idea for the time being but it is a fact that the two countries have already progressed in energy cooperation.
Last year, two countries’ energy ministers inked a preliminary agreement that foresees broad cooperation in transferring Iranian and Turkmen gas to Europe via Turkey and in allowing Turkish companies to produce 20 billion cubic meters of natural gas in the three phases of Iran’s South Pars gas field. The agreement is yet to be finalized by the two governments.
“The integration of Iran into European markets via Turkey could be a major success for both nations,“ Demir maintained.
According to Demir, Turkey’s total investment in Iran will be around $5 billion. “I don’t think that Turkey’s initiative will create a huge problem for the US. In the energy game, one cannot ignore Iran,“ he concluded.

Export of automobiles from Bandar Anzali port in Gilan province, increased significantly in the last Iranian year which ended on March 19.
Announcing this, managing director of Gilan Ports and Shipping Department told IRNA that 2,053 cars including Samand and Peugeot were exported to neighboring countries via Bandar Anzali port during March 2007-March 2008.
Farhad Montaser Kouhsari stated that 8,436 cars were exported from the port city to Russia and Kyrgyzstan during March 2007-March 2008, showing an increase of 60 percent compared to the figure for the previous year. He further noted that these countries have shown interest in Iranian products.
The official further said that some 3,256 containers were shipped on transit via Bandar Anzali port last year, showing a 244 percent increase compared to the figure for the same period the previous year.
Bandar Anzali port, which has 10 jetties, provides concurrent docking facilities for 12 ships. Some 1,358 ships docked at Bandar Anzali port in the year to March 19, Kouhsari concluded.

Water resources have been exploited without paying attention to the limitations of underground reserves, observed a faculty member of Mashhad’s Ferdowsi University.
Drought is one of the features of Iran’s climatic conditions and this phenomenon should be taken into account in tapping water resources, said Kamran Davari, according to ISNA.
He cited the ban on tapping water from Mashhad Plains, which has been in force since 1971, and regretted that the practice continues unabated.
“While arid conditions have had a bearing on agricultural patterns, unfortunately there is no management in exploiting water resources and checking demand. This has led to high water consumption and created a state of crisis.“
Davari referred to optimizing farming methods on the basis of climatic conditions as the most sustainable way of reducing losses caused by drought. Irrigation systems and greenhouses should be set up to increase productivity in the water sector, he urged. While steps have been taken in this respect, it is not enough, he said adding, “Drought is a stark reality in Iran and we should adapt ourselves to this.“

IranÕs Deputy Oil Minister Ali Kordan says establishment of an organization of gas producing countries will ensure the rights of both consumers and producers.

A session of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) was held in Tehran at expert level on Monday, presenting an opportunity for discussion on its charter, which Russia and Iran have been promoting for some time.
According to IRNA, a draft GECF charter was sent to relevant authorities of 14 states active in the forum. The document was authored by the Russian Ministry of Industry and Energy and Gazprom at the end of last year and its final acceptance took three months.
The contents and details of the charter are not known, but according to informed sources it proposes the need to create an international platform for developing a universal formula for the price of gas; the use of spot deliveries with the aim of compensating shortages in the course of fulfilling long-term contracts, and the determination of the expediency in constructing new gas pipelines, taking into account the risks involved.
In this respect, Tehran will also host a ministerial meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum, an alliance of the world’s leading producers, on May 6-7. The meeting will be attended by Iran, Algeria, Qatar, Egypt, Malaysia, Norway, Libya, Trinidad and Tobago, Russia, Venezuela, Indonesia and the UAE. Hossein Kazempour Ardebili, advisor to Iran’s oil minister, will chair the meeting in which experts from the GECF will discuss the formation of an organization for gas exporting countries.
GECF is an organization of the world’s leading gas producers, which was established in Tehran in 2001.
Proposed by Iran and backed by Russia, the official aims of the GECF are: To foster the concept of mutuality of interests by favoring dialogue between producers, between producers and consumers and between governments and energy-related industries; to provide a platform to promote study and the exchange of views; and to promote a stable and transparent energy market.
The forum doesn’t have a fixed and exact membership structure; however, Iran, Algeria, Bolivia, Brunei, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela could be identified as current members because they regularly take part in GECF sessions.
Turkmenistan, Bolivia, Libya and Oman have participated at ministerial meetings. Norway is considered an observer.
In Monday’s session, Tehran rejected the US claim that an OPEC-style gas grouping will endanger consumers’ rights, saying the objection is politically motivated.
“Establishment of an organization of gas producing countries will ensure the rights of both consumers and producers,“ Iran’s Deputy Oil Minister Ali Kordan said. “The organization will not act like a cartel but as a policy-making body in which member countries can discuss issues such as exchange of technology and reducing production costs,“ Kordan told PIN.
“So the US opposition to such grouping is political. Washington is disguising its real aim behind terms such as consumer rights.“
In brief, Iran has a charter of its own for the proposed gas grouping, written along the lines of the OPEC charter and model, which is also supported by many countries including Libya.
Tehran believes that an OPEC-style gas organization can boost relations among gas exporting countries and stabilize the gas market.

Investment security has been established in all Iranian free zones and entrepreneurs can transfer capital without any worry, said the secretary of High Council of Free Trade-Industrial Zones.
Speaking at the monthly gathering of Iranian-Dubai Commercial Council, Mahmoud Salahi said that the High Council for Free Trade-Industrial Zones is ready to facilitate the presence of Iranian and foreign investors in the country’s free zones in all fields, according to IRNA.
Highlighting the investment opportunities in free zones, he said that the council is ready to create conditions for visits by investors to the free zones.
Also, the issue of real estate, which is one of the most important dilemmas in investment, has been resolved, Salahi said, assuring that there is no problem in this respect. To draw investors to free zones, many shortfalls of these regions have been removed and bureaucracy has been scaled back to expedite the investment procedure, the official concluded.

Managing Director of the Bank of Industries and Mines Mehdi Razavi has been elected as one of the three new deputies of the Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific (ADFIAP). At the 31st annual meeting of ADFIAP in Tehran on Monday, Razavi was expected to be chosen as the organization’s new chairman but for some reasons a candidate from Samoa was given the top position.
In this respect, Razavi told ISNA, “Last year, the Bank of Industries and Mines carried out numerous tasks for ADFIAP as Iran’s representative with some major results. For that reason, I was chosen as one of the likely candidates to chair the organization. However, based on an unwritten law, only deputies with long membership in the board are allowed to head the organization.“ He said a candidate from Samoa was finally chosen as the new chairman of ADFIAP. ADFIAP is the focal point of all development banks and other financial institutions engaged in the financing of development projects in the Asia-Pacific region.

Five percent of the shares of Bank Mellat will be sold to the private sector in the Iranian month of Khordad (May 21-June 21), announced deputy head of Privatization Organization.
Esmaeil Gholami further told ISNA that the shares of Khorasan and Khuzestan steel companies in the stock exchange market and the sale of the shares of 15 companies through tenders will be discussed in the upcoming meeting of High Council for Transfer (of Shares). The official said that privatization of insurance companies takes a long time, adding that the new minister of economic affairs and finance will make decision on this.
Gholami noted that that Isfahan Refinery will also be privatized in May.
The official said that privatization of Telecommunications Company of Iran (TCI) is underway adding that the transformation of the TCI into a public stock company is a prerequisite for materializing this.

National Petrochemical Company has announced that Kazeroun, Mamasani, Boroujen, Dehdasht and Gachsaran petrochemical complexes on the West Ethylene Pipeline (WEP) route will become operational in the year to March 2009.
Manager of NPC for planning affairs, Jalil Ebrahimpour told PIN that the company will also put 12 petrochemical projects into operation this year.
He added that the funds for implementing the petrochemical projects exceeded $12.25 billion last year.
He said that Borzouyeh, Fanavaran, Tondguyan Second PET, Philippine Second Polyethylene, Laleh Light Polyethylene, Razi Third Ammonia, Farsa-Shimi Glycol Mono-ethylene, Jam Ethylene, Aria-Sasol Ethylene, and Kermanshah Urea and Ammonia petrochemical complexes were the main projects which went on stream in the year to March 19.
Construction of five projects related to WEP will begin this year, he added.