Iran Press/ Iran News: In an interview with IranPress, Hamid Hosseini added that in the last nine months, there have been developments in international relations and global markets, which have provided various opportunities and challenges for Iran.
Referring to the beginning of the war between Russia and Ukraine, he pointed out that Russia is one of the largest energy producers in the world, and its sanctions have caused an increase in the price of oil, oil products, and petrochemical products in the world markets.
The head of Iran's Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters Union added that Iran could use the rate increase in the world markets during the last seven months.
• Export of petroleum products
The OPEX head emphasized that since the beginning of the establishment of the union, we have been looking for the export of petroleum products instead of oil and gas to create the necessary platform for the increase of downstream oil and gas industries. We can now proudly announce the share of downstream oil, gas, and petrochemical industries in Iran's exports is about $25 billion.
Hosseini added $12 billion worth of petrochemical products, 5.5 million tons of polymer materials worth about 4 billion dollars, 8 million tons of methanol worth about $2.5 billion, and about 6 million tons of liquefied gas had been exported.
According to the head of OPEX, the third export is Urea, in which Iran can export up to 4 million tons.
We also export 6 to 8 million tons of liquefied gas worth $4 billion.
Hosseini announced the launch of a new bitumen production plant in Iran, and one million tons of bitumen production capacity has been added annually.
He predicted that more than 5 million tons of bitumen would be exported to different countries in the current year, and Iran would earn about $2 billion from the total bitumen export.
• Swap and transit of petroleum products
Regarding the creation of opportunities for the swap and transit of oil products with the region's countries, Hosseini said Iran is currently cooperating with Turkmenistan, and part of the oil products for the trade are imported from this country. Also, Kazakhstan has announced its readiness for bilateral cooperation in this area.
He stated that every year in winter, due to the increase in gas consumption in homes, we have to reduce or replace about 320 million cubic meters of gas provided to power plants for electricity generation.
According to Hosseini, in this regard, the most logical thing is to supply a part of domestic needs from the Russian market because it is one of the major exporters of petroleum products.
• Iran's return to the bunkering hub in the Persian Gulf, the head of Iran's Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters Union stated that part of the imported shipments is used domestically, and the other part is used for swaps and it will allow us to reactivate Iran's bunkering system.
"During the past years, about 30% of the bunkering market was under Iran's control, about 25 companies were active in this field, and with the change in the rules of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), unfortunately, the number of companies engaged in the industry has now decreased around 7 or 8 companies.
Hosseini believes that the import of Russian oil products, including fuel oil and diesel, will help Iran to sell oil products to passing ships in the Persian Gulf like in the past.
• Europe's challenge in supplying required fuel
Hosseini said that from December 5, 2022, the import of Russian oil and oil products to Europe would be limited and stopped, so Europe would face the challenge of supplying the required fuel.
He added that Europe tried hard to resolve Iran's nuclear case, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), before the beginning of winter so that Iran could return to the global oil market.
Contrary to some opposing positions, Hosseini says the European Union is very interested in reviving the JCPOA as soon as possible because, in the past, Iran used to export about 600,000 barrels of oil to Europe.
Hosseini said currently, the demand in the global oil market is more than the supply, so the Europeans are interested in Iran's presence in the market again.
"ٌWith Iran's oil injection into world markets, there will be more oil in the market, and Europeans can meet their needs," added Hosseini.
Hosseini stated that currently, the global oil market is balanced, but due to the limited capacity of reserves in Europe, as well as the beginning of the cold season and the start of exploitation of the reserves, the prices will increase again in the global markets.
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