The oil stock market, which could come on-line soon despite delays, is expected to boost Iran's oil revenues to $10 billion, Kamal Daneshyar, head of the Majlis Energy, said Saturday.
Oil will be traded in euros rather than U.S. dollars, Iranian state-run television reported.
"Iran has registered an oil bourse on the Persian Gulf island of Kish in which oil would be sold in euros," the broadcast said. Kish, located off the coast of southern Iran, houses the offices of some 100 Iranian and foreign oil companies.
On London and New York markets, oil is traded in U.S. dollars.
The idea to begin trading oil was first conceived by former President Mohammad Khatami in 2004, and the idea of a euros-traded oil market became a goal of the new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Daneshyar told reporters during the conference on Oil, Gas and Energy in the 20-year Vision Plan that despite the short gap in the process, the oil stock market is expected to open soon.
"The first stage of this stock market will include the sale of oil and petrochemical products, while oil transactions will be added to its transactions in the coming year," he said.
Iran plans to make the country's Oil Ministry assume a large role in taking charge of the oil stock market.
"The Foreign Investment Organization, which was established four years ago, should be given a more important role in this stock market," Daneshyar said.
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Gazprom struggles to meet demand, seeks 23 licenses by 2010
Russian gas giant Gazprom plans to obtain 23 licenses by 2010 as it aims to develop and explore Russia's sea shelf, Arkady Lakhov, Gazprom's director for sea shelf development, told a conference Monday.
But industry experts say Gazprom might not be able to meet its supply commitments by the end of the decade due to a lack of investment, Claude Mandil, the head of the International Energy Agency, and Vladimir Milov, a former Russian deputy energy minister, said Monday at an energy summit in London.
"We are afraid that Gazprom will not have, in the coming years, enough gas to supply even their existing customers and existing contracts. This is our data," Mandil said.
Under Gazprom's strategy, the licenses are part of a program for the development of the shelf in 2006-2010 as the company's gas reserves are expected to grow by 2.5 trillion cubic meters, while oil reserves to rise by 90 million tons by 2010, Lakhov said.
The program would incorporate the Prirazlomnoye and Shtokman deposits located on the Barents Sea shelf, the offshore Dolginskoye oil block in the Pechora Sea and other deposits, Lakhov said.
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Chemical spills, disposals a concern in the oil industry
The oil and gas sector needs to begin paying more attention to the disposal of its chemical materials, Salim al-Dhahiri, director general of the Federal Environmental Agency, told a seminar on Chemical Materials Use in Offshore Oil and Gas Production.
"The oil and gas industry is required to be very selective in regards to selection of chemical materials up to the safe disposal of them with the purpose of striking the optimum degree of balance between the environment considerations and requirements of development," he said.
"The use and management of these materials in the sensitive fragile Gulf ecosystems is gaining increasing importance attention and that more care should be lent to mechanisms for handling them," he added.
Disposal of chemicals has been a growing concern as many of them pose health and environmental risks to different degrees.
Accidental oil pollution remains a major challenge in the Persian Gulf region since they result in serious pollution to the marine environment, Hassan Mohammadi, said coordinator of Kuwait-based Regional Organization for the Protection of the Marine Environment.
"The impacts of offshore oil installations particularly that of produced water on the marine environment are enormous. The operational pollution from ships and dumping of ballast water are also among the main causes of chronic oil pollution in the Region," Mohammadi said.
"Technology of drilling, navigation, transport and utilization of oil has undergone radical changes in the recent years and the physical activities in our Marine Environment have grown multifold," Mohammadi added. "This has led to many exaggerations like rapid infrastructure development, relentless pollution and unfortunate conflicts. We recognize that a fragile and unique ecosystem lies beneath the shell of these activities and we are valiantly working towards protecting it."
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Closing oil prices, May 23, 3 p.m. London
Brent crude oil: $67.43
West Texas Intermediate crude oil: $67.91
