WNN - Asian countries continue to dominate the market for new nuclear build, according to a newly-released report from the World Nuclear Association. Of the 10 new nuclear power reactors that started up worldwide in 2016, eight were located in Asia.

The government of Turkey said it will deal exclusively with the Iraqi government on oil exports after voters in the semiautonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq supported independence in a controversial referendum.

Instead, with the planned referendum just days away, Russian state oil giant Rosneft announced its latest investment last week, to help Iraqi Kurdistan develop its natural gas industry, for domestic supplies and eventual export.

Iran exported over 5 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas during the first five months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-August 22), Dispatching director of National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) announced.

Gazprom Neft has shipped its second and largest cargo of Iraqi crude to the US since the Badra field, its flagship overseas oil project, came on stream in 2014, the Russian oil company said Tuesday.

On Thursday, the administration extended certain sanctions on Iran's oil and banking sectors that have been suspended since the nuclear deal took place in January 2016.

Iran has exported an average of more than 2.6 million barrels of oil and gas condensate per day last month (July 23- Aug 22), Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneeh said.

The completion of the second review allows the authorities to draw the equivalent of SDR 584.2 million (about US$ 824.8 million), bringing total disbursements to SDR 1494.2 million about US$ 2109.7 million. The SDR 3.831 billion arrangement (about US$5.34 billion at the time of approval of the arrangement) was approved in July, 2016 and the first review was completed on December 5, 2016.

The Indian consortium led by the state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is willing to spend as much as $11bn to develop the giant Iranian natural gas field it discovered in 2008.

Russia’s state-controlled oil company is in discussions with Iraqi Kurdistan over helping it develop oilfields in disputed territory at the heart of tensions with Baghdad, in a move that pitches Moscow into one of Iraq’s oldest faultlines.

On 19 June 2017, ATOMEXPO-2017 IX International Forum in Moscow saw a contract signed between TVEL Rosatom Fuel Company and the Atomic Energy Organization of the Islamic Republic of Iran on delivering a reserve batch of Russian nuclear fuel of Advanced Fuel Assemblies (AFA) type for the first unit of the Bushehr NPP in 2017.

"It is worth taking the risk at $1 billion because it opens a huge market. We are perfectly conscious of some risks. We have taken into account (sanctions) snap-backs, we have to take into account regulation changes," Pouyanne said in an interview.

Россия обладает технологиями, которые мы готовы предлагать за рубеж. Российские компании НК, Роснефть, Газпром нефть, ЛУКОЙЛ, Зарубежнефть, Газпром, Газпром и Татнефть активно интересуются возможностью работы в Иране. По нашим предварительным оценкам, объем инвестиций в нефтегазовый сектор Ирана может составить свыше 20 миллиардов долларов США.

Iran has so far signed memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with four Russian companies for developing its oil and gas fields: Lukoil for Ab Teymour and Mansouri fields, Zarubezhneft for Aban and West Paydar fields, Tatneft for Dehloran and Shadegan fields and Gazprom for Cheshmeh Khosh and Changouleh fields.

В портфеле торгпредства российско-иранских проектов около 50 проектов на сумму порядка $40 млрд.