The Custom Administration released details of Iran’s non-oil export indicating the country’s revenues are affected by both crude oil and non-oil exports.
Oil prices have decreased by almost 60 percent since mid-2014, while the country’s oil export also indicates a decrease over the 10 months of 2015.
The country’s oil export to its Asian clients fluctuated around 1.1 million barrels per day (mb/d) during the first half of 2015, 8.9 percent less than the previous year, while “September and October loadings – for arrivals mostly in October and November – indicate purchases by Iran’s main buyers in Asia are set to fall a third consecutive month,” Reuters reported Oct. 6.
Iran sold only 720,000 barrels per day in October to its four major Asian clients China, India, Japan and South Korea, while Turkey bought 110,000 barrels per day, the report said.
Iranian government is setting next year’s budget at $22 billion export revenues, 5 times less than the pre-sanctions level in 2011.
At the same time, about 55 percent of Iran’s total non-oil export revenues are petrochemical products and gas condensate. Iran includes gas condensate – an ultra light crude oil- in non-oil exports basket.
During the first half of Iran’s fiscal year, started on March 21, the country increased petrochemical products export by more than 35 percent in volume, but the revenues decreased by 0.2 percent year-to-year. Petrochemical products export exceeded pre-sanction level during last six month.
On the other hand, while condensate export dropped by about 3 percent in volume in this period, the revenues decreased by more than 40 percent.
Iran exported 9.241 million metric tons of condensate with worth $4 billion and 12.195 million metric tons of petrochemicals with worth $7.128 billion during this period.
The country’s total non-oil exports stood at about $20.5 billion, 14.15 percent less than first half of last fiscal year.
In other oil-related commodities, Iran increased propane export by 43 percent in volume to 1.6 million metric ton, while the revenues decreased by 24 percent to $815 million. Butane export also increased by 20 percent in volume to 962,000 metric tons and declined by 35 percent in value to $505 million.
Methanol export decreased by 2 percent in volume to 2 million tons, but almost halved in value to $541 million.
On the other hand, Iran increased light oils (excluding gasoline) by almost 58 times to 462,000 metric tons during last six months, while revenues increased only 38.5 times to $329 million.
Bitumen export rose by about 30 percent to 1.62 million metric tons, while revenues rose only 8.7 percent to $678 million.
Dalga Khatinoglu is an expert on Iran’s energy sector
