British Petroleum: 75% Increase in Iran's Nuclear Power Production in 2016

The British Petroleum (BP) company has reported a significant increase in Iran's oil, gas, and nuclear power production in its latest annual report. According to the report published on BP's official website, Iran's production of oil, condensates, and gas liquids increased by about 18% in 2016, reaching 4.6 million barrels per day. Iran consumed 1.8 million barrels of this production domestically and exported the rest. Iran's refined gas production also rose by 6.6% compared to 2015, exceeding 202 billion cubic meters. Almost all of this gas production was consumed domestically, with a slight difference (just over one billion cubic meters) between Iran's gas exports and imports. The report states that Iran's oil and gas reserves have remained relatively stable. With 33.5 trillion cubic meters, Iran is the second-largest holder of gas reserves in the world, accounting for 18% of the total global gas reserves. Russia holds the first position, followed by Qatar and Turkmenistan. Iran's extractable oil reserves are estimated at 158.4 billion barrels, equivalent to 9.3% of the total conventional reserves worldwide. Another section of BP's report concerns Iran's electricity production. It states that Iran increased its nuclear power production and consumption by over 75% last year. The latest annual statistics from Iran's Ministry of Energy indicate that approximately 6.7 terawatt-hours (billion kilowatt-hours) of nuclear electricity were produced last year. Iran's only nuclear power plant is currently Bushehr, which has been operational since 2011, although its operations have been halted several times. For instance, in 2014, Iran's nuclear electricity production was 4.5 terawatt-hours, and in 2015 it was about three terawatt-hours. The Ministry of Energy's report indicates that despite the significant increase in electricity production last year, the Bushehr plant operated at 75% capacity. However, BP notes that electricity production from Iran's hydroelectric dams has decreased by nearly 30%. The report adds that while global carbon dioxide production has remained stable over the past three years, Iran's carbon dioxide emissions increased by 2.1%, reaching 631 million tons last year. Regarding global statistics, BP states that the production of various energy carriers worldwide increased by an average of 1% last year, which is half the annual increase in global energy production over the past decade. Among energy carriers, although the share of electricity production from renewable sources is small (about four percent), there was the highest growth in energy carrier production in this sector last year, with a 12% increase. Coal consumption, as the most polluting fossil fuel, also decreased by 1.7%, which is encouraging news for environmentalists. Gas consumption, as the cleanest fossil fuel, increased by 1.5%, although this figure averaged 2.3% over the past decade. However, the encouraging point in gas production is that last year, more than one-third of the world's gas exports were in liquid form, which is much more flexible than gas sold via pipeline. Nearly 350 billion cubic meters of liquefied gas (LNG) were sold globally last year. The export of liquefied gas allows countries far from gas reserves, such as those in East Asia, to import liquefied gas by ship and utilize it.