Iran Heavy Diesel Engine Mfg. PressTV. DESA) is designing a V-12 engine that will run on a blend of 80% natural gas and 20% diesel. DESA was established four years ago to design, develop and manufacture medium-duty diesel engines for automotive, industrial and power generation applications. It unveiled its first diesel—the Model D87—on 24 July. However, the 800 kW (1,072 hp) dual-fuel version will have great environmental advantages. MORE

Today the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reports "Soaring Energy Use Puts Oil Squeeze on Iran." Iran may start rationing gasoline as soon as next month, and its oil exports could dry up in as little as a decade. The stagnation of Iran's oil industry presents a potential crisis for the country and the global oil market. As we all know, Iran is investing in nuclear power to provide a larger chunk of its future energy requirements. MORE

Shana. Iran’s Petrochemical Research and Technology Company (PRTC) has held talks with Zagross Petrochemical Complex, as one of the largest methanol producers in the country, for the construction of an 800,000 ton unit for converting methanol to dimethyl ether. Gholamreza Joukar, head of the PRTC said that the company has also offered the plan for construction of DME units—including a 100,000 ton unit and a 400,000 ton unit to three other companies. MORE

Borgward will systematically continue to globalize its activities by entering the markets of Middle Eastern countries such as Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Iran. In this region, we expect especially strong momentum to come from Iran. In accordance with this roadmap, the company will expand westwards from China before entering the European market. As announced, we will boost growth further and open up new markets. MORE

The next OPEC meeting on the 2nd of June will act as little more than a forum for continued altercations between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The 2 June 2016 OPEC meeting will be held amid a backdrop of oil prices near $50 per barrel, a sharp drop in Nigerian production due to sabotage, turmoil in Venezuela, Saudi Arabia operating with a new oil minister, and Iran aggressively pumping close to pre-sanction levels. by Rakesh Upadhyay for Oilprice.com. MORE

A team from Shiraz University in Iran is proposing a novel reactor configuration for Fischer-Tropsch synthesis (FTS) that utilizes a fixed-bed water perm-selective membrane reactor followed by a fluidized-bed hydrogen perm-selective membrane reactor. MORE

Researchers at the University of Tehran (Iran), with colleagues at Isfahan University of Technology and Iran University of Science and Technology, are proposing a new intelligent control strategy for the energy management of hybrid powertrains based on the driving cycle type. MORE

Fars News Agency reports that automaker Iran-Khodro Company (IKCO) will begin introducing cars equipped with its self-developed diesel engine by 2013. The engine meets Euro V emission standards and could be mounted on C and D segment sedans manufactured for Iran market. Mass production of the engine will start in 2015, according to Alireza Aslani, the project manager of the IKCO diesel engine. MORE

Fars News Agency (FNA) reports that Iranian experts and scientists for the first time managed to produce biodiesel fuel using the oil extracted from Jatropha curcas plant cultivated in Southern Iran. MORE

Japan-based Terra Motors, a manufacturer of electric two and three-wheelers ( earlier post ), has started sales of the A4000i electric scooter—with new products to follow—in Tehran, Iran with Jahanro Industrial Co, exclusively for next five years. But now it successfully became a distributor of Kawasaki, Bajaj, and TVS, with 1,000 employees and 200 dealers in Iran. We believe that this partnership will lead to great expansion of the electric motorcycle market in Iran. MORE

Yet in other parts of the world, as many as 2 percent of the vehicles on the road are fueled by natural gas, in countries as diverse as Brazil, India, and Iran. Ask anyone to name an alternate fuel, and natural gas is rarely the first one that comes to mind. Ethanol, perhaps, and increasingly electricity. But natural gas? Not so much. MORE

A new class of materials which are suitable agents for displacing oil in enhanced oil recovery operations has been developed by scientists at Swansea University (UK) and scientists at Islamic Azad University in Iran. The new nanoparticle-surfactant complexes, composed of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) surfactant and fumed silica nanoparticles (Si-NPs) improve oil recovery to 58% compared to 45% in the presence of the surfactant alone. MORE

With the clock ticking, the 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (P5 plus 1) are negotiating down to the wire with Iran over its nuclear program. Iran has signaled its willingness to accept international inspections of its nuclear program and the possibility of receiving enriched uranium from abroad. In exchange the US has suggested Iran could maintain some domestic ability to enrich uranium. As a result, Iran’s GDP fell by 5.8 MORE

Volkswagen will begin the sale of vehicles in Iran in August. The privately-owned local partner Mammut Khodro—also the official Iranian importer for the Volkswagen Group’s Scania brand—will import Volkswagen brand vehicles into Iran and initially distribute them through eight dealers, focusing on the Teheran region. Initially, Volkswagen’s Tiguan and Passat models are to be imported under a contract concluded with the Iranian automotive company Mammut Khodro. MORE

One of China’s most recent mid-stream deals included building a pipeline from Iran to Pakistan , which is being built despite objections from the U.S. Unlike the pipeline that will travel from Iran to Pakistan, this pipeline deal was made as a means to satisfy China's growing thirst for oil. by John Manfreda for Oilprice.com. Since 2009, China has been taking a much more active role in its pursuit of international oil contracts. MORE

In a meeting between Head of Iranian Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IDRO) Seyed Majid Hedayat and Deputy Brazilian Science and Technology Minister Czar Gadella in Tehran, Gadella said that Brazil is ready to cooperate with Iran in sugarcane ethanol and other fields of technology, including oil, gas, nanotechnology, microelectronics, information technology and biotechnology. MORE

It has assemblers in Vietnam, Iran, India, Kazakhstan, and Pakistan. Russian commercial vehicle manufacturer KAMAZ is proposing to create an artificial city as a testing ground for unmanned vehicles. The project will cost about 5 billion rubles (US$87 million). In it, trucks without drivers will test out moving through traffic and navigating complex intersections and pedestrian crossings. Models of cars, motorcyclists, bicyclists, and pedestrians will be placed on the testing ground. MORE

President Putin’s recent moves in the Middle East—to shore up Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria through deployment of combat aircraft, equipment, and manpower and build-out of air-, naval-, and ground-force bases, and the agreement in the last week with Iran, Iraq, and Syria on intelligence and security cooperation—could contribute to Russian efforts to combat the myriad negative pressures on Russia’s vital energy industry. by Dalan McEndree for Oilprice.com. MORE

Osouli said that the field is different from oil and gas layers located in the Persian Gulf, south of Iran, with respect to its layers. Iranian oil officials announced that the in-place reserves of a newly found oil field in the Caspian Sea may contain 8 to 10 billion barrels of oil—i.e., supergiant field class. MORE

Iran, Pakistan and Jordan would experience the most improvement in agricultural production. National benefits of the CH 4 plus BC measures versus the reference scenario. MORE

Iran’s largest car and truck-manufacturing company, Iran-Khodro, will unveil what it calls the Middle-East’s first hybrid bus. “The hybrid system designed in this project was installed on one of Iran-Khodro Diesel Co. The 4-year project was a collaborative effort by Iran-Khodro Industrial Group, Tehran University, Isfahan University and Iran’s Fuel Conservation Company (IFCO). MORE

Shayeganfar, a former visiting scholar at Rice, is an instructor at Shahid Rajaee Teacher Training University in Tehran, Iran. MORE

From Saturday's New York Times story " Cheney, on Carrier, Sends Warning to Iran " Vice President Dick Cheney used the deck of an American aircraft carrier just 150 miles off Iran’s coast as the backdrop yesterday to warn that the United States was prepared to use its naval power to keep Tehran from disrupting oil routes. Tags: petroleum dick cheney iran Oil MORE

PSA Peugeot Citroën, which has operated in Iran for more than 30 years, and Iran Khodro signed a joint venture agreement to produce latest-generation vehicles in Iran. The agreement provides for: The restoration of contractual relations concerning the manufacture of Peugeot-branded vehicles currently produced in Iran. Current estimates put the number of Peugeot cars on the road in Iran at more than 4 million. MORE

The PSA Group and Iran Khodro have signed the final joint venture agreement to produce latest-generation vehicles in Iran. The agreement provides for: The creation of a joint venture on an industrial site in Tehran to produce new latest-generation Peugeot vehicles, on a platform that will also be used by Iran Khodro to develop its own vehicles. The restoration of contractual relations for the production of Peugeot-branded vehicles currently sold in Iran. MORE

Other LG entities—including LG Electronics, LG Chem and LG Innotek—will lead efforts to develop electric motors, batteries and key auto parts, the company said, according to a report from Iran’s Mehr News Agency. According to the deal, as reported in The Chosun Ilbo , LG will develop 20 EVs for automaker Iran Khodro by 2018 and set up charging stations in Tehran. LG International Corp., MORE

Groupe Renault, IDRO and PARTO NEGIN NASEH Co (NEGIN Holding) are forming a new joint venture company in Iran to boost Renault's presence in the country and step up the brand’s growth. The joint-venture with Renault’s historical partners SAIPA and Iran Khodro will continue to produce and deliver the current range: Tondar, Tondar pick-up, Sandero and Sandero Stepway, independently of the start of this new JV. MORE

Currently, the top five markets for natural gas vehicles are Pakistan, Argentina, Iran, India and Brazil with Pike Research anticipating that India will be the fastest growing market at a rate of 18.4 Tags: Green cars Latest news Argentina Brazil Cleantech india Iran natural gas cars natural gas vehicles Pakistan Pike Research US natural gas vehicles MORE

Iran-Khodro Company (IKCO) plans to reduce the fuel consumption of its products to 7.4 liters per 100km (32 mpg US) in 2011. By 2014, the company plans to reduce average fuel consumption to 6.5 L/100km (36 mpg US). IKCO’s Director for standardization Kayvan Vaziri said that the fuel consumption of its cars had been improved by about one 1 L/100km 2010 in comparison to the previous year. In 2009, the average fuel consumption of IKCO cars was about 8.86 L/100km (26.6 MORE

The Strait is located between Oman and Iran, and connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. MORE

It's a truism of new-car sales: Gas prices go up, buyers focus more on gas mileage. Gas prices go down again, people forget all about fuel efficiency. Well, here's a gentle reminder about why you may want to focus on cars with high EPA ratings for gas mileage. As The New York Times reported, on Tuesday a senior Iranian government official said the MORE

But while the Syrian uprising and political tensions between Iran and the West over its nuclear program are playing a small part in increasing the price you pay Over the past week or so, we’ve seen the average price of gasoline hit $3.60 per gallon of regular, with some areas of the country -- like California -- reaching a heady $4 a gallon. MORE

What does North Dakota have in common with Iran? If North Dakota were a country, it would rank fifth behind Russia, Nigeria, Iran, and Iraq on the list of worst natural-gas wasters, according to the World Bank. An editorial in The Forum of Fargo-Moorehead blasted the North Dakota natural-gas industry for wasting valuable resources through flaring MORE

Last Friday, President Trump signed an executive order suspending “immigrant and nonimmigrant entry” into the US from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen for 90 days, with the potential for adding further countries of origin to the list of proscribed. MORE

Pike expects India to overtake Iran for the lean in NGV sales in 2014, and targets that market at 612,389 NGVs in 2016 (12.0% Iran and Pakistan are expected to rank second and third, respectively. According to a new report from Pike Research, worldwide natural gas vehicle (NGV) sales will increase at a healthy pace over the next several years, rising from 1.9 million vehicles per year in 2010 to more than 3.2 million units annually by 2016. Overall, Pike projects the current 12.6 MORE

There is some slack production in Iran, due to western sanctions, but even when it returns to the fold it likely will only make a small contribution to oil production growth in the long-term. by Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com. Despite what appears to be a saturated oil market in 2014, oil producers around the world will struggle to meet rising demand over the next few decades. MORE

Iran Khodro Powertrain Co. It can be mounted on all of Iran Khodro’s C and D class products. IPCO) unveiled its first national diesel engine for passenger cars. The unveiling ceremony was concurrent with the first day of the “Sixth International Conference on Internal Combustion Engines” in Tehran, organized by IPCO. MORE

The hopes of reaching an agreement in Doha were scuttled by Saudi Arabia, because it wanted its arch rival, Iran, to participate in the freeze. That said, the last thing that Iran wants is to be sidelined, so Tehran is bound to make its presence felt at the meeting with strong statements. MORE

Also, although there was a lot of speculation about Iran’s ability to return some capacity to the market, such an outcome appears more and more likely. Iran’s oil minister insists that his country has secured buyers for 500,000 barrels per day of oil, the amount that Iran believes it can add pretty much immediately after sanctions are lifted. by Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com. MORE

However, OPEC has been in the line of fire from the western world in light of its stance of not reducing the production levels of its member nations (excluding Iran). The EIA even predicts that OPEC’s net oil exports (excluding Iran) could fall to as low as $380 billion in 2015. MORE

Because production levels from Iran, Libya, and Sudan and South Sudan dropped since 2011, China replaced the lost shares of crude oil and other liquids imports from these countries with imports from Oman, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Angola, Venezuela, and Russia. MORE

Iran, Iraq, and Syria have signed a deal for the construction of the Middle East’s largest gas pipeline, which would carry gas from Iran’s South Pars gas field to Europe via Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon and beneath the Mediterranean Sea. According to projections, Iran’s gas output will double in the next two or three years due to the expansion of gas fields, which will make it possible for the country to export 250 million cubic meters of gas per day. MORE

million b/d, as production in Nigeria and Libya tentatively recovered along with steady increases for Saudi Arabia and Iran, according to an S&P Global Platts survey of OPEC and oil industry officials. OPEC’s 300,000-barrel-per-day output rise in June, boosted by fragile recoveries in Libya and Nigeria, and the unrelenting rise in Iran and the increase in Saudi Arabia, sends a strong message over its unwavering market share strategy. MORE