Iran’s oil products revenues soar

Tehran, Feb 13, IRNA -- Iran earned more than $2.3 billion from sales of oil products in the 10 months to January as the country is applying innovative methods to sidestep US-led sanctions. Sales of fuel oil rose 30% to $1.35 billion from the same period a year ago, head of the commercial department of National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company (NIOPDC) Mohammad Reza Mazloumi said. Gas oil sales also generated Iran $963 million during the period, he said in a Press TV report. NIOPDC projects its sales of fuel oil will hit 4 million tons by the end of the Iranian year in March 20, having sold more than 3 million tons in the first 10 months. Sales of oil products offer a lifeline in the face of a double whammy of US-led sanctions and oil price swings. Iran’s oil exports have nosedived by about 1.5 million barrels per day since late 2013, shaving about $100 billion off the government revenues. With the government hard pressed on how to balance the books, Ahmadreza Dastgheib, a deputy planning official in the Iranian parliament, says Iran has shuffled its budget to ward off the impact from oil price volatility. 'With regard to uncertainty about realization of oil revenues and special economic circumstances of the country, we have considered two ceilings for budget revenues in next year's public budget, which relieve our worries about not realization of anticipated revenues,' he said. President Hassan Rouhani has said that his government had reduced Iran’s reliance on oil revenues from an average of 45% over the past two decades to about 31.5% next year. Dastgheib says the budget has been arranged so that even if oil prices drop to $40 per barrel, Iran would still see positive earnings in the next year budget. On Thursday, oil prices rebounded more than $1 toward $56 a barrel after a two-day decline.