Iran’s Oil Revival Springs a Leak

Wall Street Journal ^ | Dec. 2, 2015 | BENOÃŽT FAUCON

[thackney]

Iran's energy industry is plagued by a host of challenges--from leaking pipelines to skeptical western oil investors--as it attempts to throttle up crude output next year when western sanctions are expected to be lifted.

Iran's aging infrastructure is in disrepair after several years without the expertise of the world's largest oil companies, western and Iranian officials say. The country is likely to be selling as much as 500,000 new barrels of oil into an already saturated market for crude exports, setting up logistical hurdles.

And the Islamic Republic is more divided politically over the return of western companies than expected, western executives say.

Oil industry officials who attended an energy conference in Tehran last week said it wasn't clear if Iran could carry through on plans to double production over the next few years.

"I doubt Iran's oil industry has the capacity to absorb the required investments," said a European oil executive. "They may be overstretching themselves."

Iran's ability to expand its crude exports by up to 1 million barrels a day in 2016 is a looming question that has weighed on the oil market this year. Abundant supplies from Saudi Arabia, the U.S. and Russia have kept prices for Brent crude, the international benchmark, below $50 a barrel for much of the year, and new Iranian crude would just add to the glut.

Iranian officials said they plan to use this week's meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to call for Saudi Arabia to pull back on its own output. That could allow a wave of Iranian exports potentially without exerting more downward pressure on prices.

Saudi Arabia's oil minister Ali al-Naimi said Tuesday that he would listen to other countries before deciding on an OPEC output...

[arthurus]

The oil pricew revival depends on an economy revival and with the major economies and almost all of the lesser ones being run by socialists and Moslems that is not about to happen. An oil price rise can only go so far at this point because if it goes to $60 or so the shale giant will revive and depress it again. That technology cannot be uninvented.

[lewislynn]

Iranian officials said they plan to use this week's meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to call for Saudi Arabia to pull back on its own output. That could allow a wave of Iranian exports potentially without exerting more downward pressure on prices.

Saudi Arabia's oil minister Ali al-Naimi said Tuesday that he would listen to other countries before deciding on an OPEC output...

IOW,nothing about oil is free market, open market or fair trade and the same is true with every country we have "deals" with for anything.