Free Republic

Iran has discovered a new oil field in the country’s south with over 50 billion barrels of crude, its president said Sunday, a find that could boost the country’s proven reserves by a third as it struggles to sell energy abroad over U.S. sanctions. The announcement by Hassan Rouhani comes as Iran faces crushing American sanctions after the U.S. pulled out of its nuclear deal with world powers last year. Rouhani made the announcement in a speech in the desert city of Yazd. He said the field was located in Iran’s southern Khuzestan province, home to its crucial oil industry....

A special European Union initiative to protect trade with Iran against newly reimposed U.S. sanctions faces possible collapse with no EU country willing to host the operation for fear of provoking U.S. punishment.

Iran awaiting European guarantees on the sale of Iranian oil and banking relations, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Saturday, according to the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA). […] “We are still waiting for Europe to take action on the sale of Iranian oil and the preservation of banking channels,” the Iranian foreign minister said. Zarif also defended the European Union’s decision on Thursday to provide €18 million ($21 million) in aid to Iran to offset the impact of U.S. sanctions, part of efforts to salvage the 2015 deal to limit Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. […] The top U.S. envoy...

BEIJING • A tanker carrying Iranian oil and run by the country's top oil shipping operator was ablaze and spewing cargo into the East China Sea yesterday after colliding with a Chinese bulk ship, leaving its 32 crew members missing, the Chinese government said.

Just about everyone right now wants to know where President-elect Donald Trump stands on Iran, and what fate lies ahead for the nuclear deal and the easing of sanctions that have energy companies’ mouths watering—not the least of them oilfield services giant Schlumberger, which has just hedged its bets that sanctions are history despite heavy rhetoric to the contrary. Schlumberger has signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Iranian South Oil Company for the development of oilfields in Iran’s southern Khouzestan province, making it the second Western energy major to return to Iran after the lifting of most sanctions....

The Swiss Supreme Court in Lausanne has ordered the Israel-controlled Trans-Asiatic Oil Company to pay a debt of $1.2 billion to Iran's national Oil Company. According to Global Arbitration Review, which published the Swiss court’s ruling, Iran’s oil company has been removed from the sanctions regime, so there is no legal obstacle to paying it any money. On June 27, the court directed Trans-Asiatic to pay the Iranians 250,000 Swiss francs (about 1 million shekels, or $260,000) of the monies that have been deposited with the court, and another 200,000 francs in court costs. Trans-Asiatic appealed, and lost, saddling the...

Energy-rich Iran, which is the fourth country in the world for its proven oil reserves of 158 billion barrels, has discovered shale oil reserves in the Lorestan Province. This was announced by the Director of Center for Exploration and Production at the country’s Oil Ministry, Mohammad Reza Kamali on April 25. The project of studying the shale reserves is completed by 47 percent, he said, adding that the studies, conducted in cooperation with German RWTH Aachen University prove the existence of significant reserves of shale oil in Lorestan Province. However, Kamali did not disclose whether Iran plans to extract shale...

Stock markets across the Middle East saw more than £27bn wiped off their value as the lifting of economic sanctions against Iran threatened to unleash a fresh wave of oil onto global markets that are already drowning in excess supply.

Stock markets across the Middle East collapsed as the lifting of economic sanctions against Iran threatened to unleash a fresh wave of oil onto global markets that are already drowning in excess supply. All seven stock markets in Gulf states tumbled as panic gripped traders. Dubai's DFM General Index slumped 4.8pc to 2,682.56, while Saudi Arabia's Tadawul All Share Index collapsed by 7pc to 5,409.35, its lowest level in almost five years.

TEHRAN - Iran has left the development of two oilfields to the energy giant British Petroleum (BP), an informed source told the Tasnim News Agency on the condition of anonymity. The announcement is a follow-up to the September meeting between Iranian Oil Ministry officials and BP top managers, where the Iranian side headed by Amir Hossein Zamani Nia, the deputy oil minister for international affairs and trade, agreed to transfer the development of two oilfields to BP based on the new model of Iranian oil contracts, known as Integrated Petroleum Contract (IPC), which is due to be unveiled soon. ---snip---...

On Wednesday, Barack Obama made a weak plea for support to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement with Iran. He even went so far as to castigate opponents of this foreign policy faux pas as equal to Iran’s maniacal Islamists. Obama states the only alternative to accepting his deal is war. Well, we already reported Russia’s looking to sell Iran a fleet of aerial refueling tankers. Now, there’s another report about an Iranian weapons purchase — and the report is not coming from our media. As reported by the Jerusalem Post: Iran is beginning to reap the fruits...

"Let’s retire Neville Chamberlain’s umbrella. It’s become a pretty threadbare symbol over the years." "Like Andreas Lubitz, the president knows what he’s doing. He does not believe that the Iranians, the world’s third greatest oil exporters, are interested in generating nuclear energy. He does not believe that the mullahs will fail to cheat on any agreement, or fail to use the revenue flowing in with the lifting of sanctions to fund global terrorism. He does not believe that there will be much will to reimpose sanctions on the part of countries profiting from trade with Iran."

A voracious virus attack has hit computers running key parts of Iran's oil sector, forcing authorities to unplug its main oil export terminal from the Internet and to set up a cyber crisis team, according to reports on Monday. The Mehr news agency reported that Iran's principal oil terminal on Kharg island in the Gulf has been disconnected from the Internet since Sunday along with facilities in other parts of the country. The Kharg terminal handles 90 per cent of Iran's oil exports, according to the National Iranian Oil Terminals Company. Mehr said the Internet disconnection “has not caused any...

India is the first buyer of Iranian oil to agree to pay for its purchases in gold instead of the US dollar, debkafile's intelligence and Iranian sources report exclusively. Those sources expect China to follow suit. India and China take about one million barrels per day, or 40 percent of Iran's total exports of 2.5 million bpd. Both are superpowers in terms of gold assets. By trading in gold, New Delhi and Beijing enable Tehran to bypass the upcoming freeze on its central bank's assets and the oil embargo which the European Union's foreign ministers agreed to impose Monday, Jan....

US President Barack Obama Saturday signed into law tough new sanctions targeting Iran's central bank and financial sector, in a move that could intensify a brewing Gulf showdown. The measures, meant to punish Iran for its nuclear program, were contained in a mammoth $662 billion defense bill, which Obama signed despite having reservations that it ties his hands on setting foreign policy. The sanctions are meant to hit Iran's crucial oil sector and require foreign firms to make a choice between doing business with Tehran's financial sector and central bank or the mighty US economy and financial sector. Foreign central...