Excerpts: Struggling Iranians re 'bright future'. Shell gas to Jordan for 5
years January 22, 2015

+++SOURCE: Saudi Gazette 22 Jan.’15:”Beset by hardship, Iranians seem losing
hope for future”,Parisa Hafezi -Reuters
SUBJECT: Struggling Iranians re ‘bright future’
QUOTE:” leaders tell the people that adversity will make them stronger”
FULL TEXT:ANKARA — As prices of food, water and electricity rise further
beyond reach, struggling Iranians are losing belief in their pragmatic
president and his promise of a brighter future.

The country has been hit by the double hammer blows of persisting Western
sanctions over its nuclear activities and plunging oil prices — but its
leaders tell the people that adversity will make them stronger.

This offers scant comfort to many ordinary Iranians struggling to support
their families as high unemployment and low wages take their toll.

They had pinned their hopes on President Hassan Rohani, who won power in
2013 with pledges to improve the economy by ending the decade-long nuclear
stand-off with the West — but a comprehensive deal has still not
materialized.

"All these promises of improving the economy are just nice words," said
Morad Rezaian, a father-of-five who owns a small grocery shop in the
southern port city of Bandar Abbas.

"I can't feed my kids with empty promises."

Mid-way through Rohani's first term, he has not only angered political
hardliners who oppose any rapprochement with the US "Great Satan", but is
losing the belief of many of the middle and lower-income Iranians who voted
him in and are now shouldering much of the burden of the economic woes.

Many ships bringing grain have been turned back from Iranian ports over the
past year because Tehran cannot pay suppliers, driving up food prices.

Ghanbar Emadi, a private-sector employee in the north-western city of
Tabriz, said the cost of a loaf of "barbari" bread had risen by around a
third in the past three months alone to 10,000 rials ($3).

"Can we afford to buy goods? Of course not. Seems our leaders live in
another country than we do when they talk about economic success."

For years OPEC member Iran has offset the damaging impact of sanctions with
high oil revenues, with much of the country's food and many of the
manufacturing parts used to assemble goods in its factories paid for with
"petrodollars".

But crude prices have halved since June, slashing revenues and compounding
the effect of sanctions that have reduced Iran's oil exports by 60 percent
to around 1 million barrels a day.

"They talk about improved economy - maybe on paper but not in reality. The
price of goods is increasing fast and our purchasing power is declining,"
said 38-year-old housewife Masumeh Zandi in the Caspian Sea port of Rasht.

Rohani's administration has repaired some of the economic damage caused
mainly by sanctions, including stabilizing the currency and using
conservative monetary and fiscal policies to halve the official annual
inflation rate to around 20 percent. But more than a year after reaching an
initial agreement with the six major powers over its nuclear program, a
final deal has not been struck to end the sanctions that have prompted the
government to cut food and energy subsidies in a bid to ease squeezed state
finances.

"I am not an economist but I know how much I am spending every month," said
42-year-old teacher Mahsa Hosseini in Tehran.

"The price of bread, electricity, water and natural gas is increasing. Why?
We are an energy-rich country. What happened to all those election promises
of Rohani?"

The state of economy has always been a central factor in shaping Iran's
political evolution since the country's 1979 revolution that toppled the
US-backed Shah.

If Rohani cannot make good on his promise to lift sanctions, he could lose
the support of many Iranians and cede influence to hardliners in the
country's complex political structure — leading to a deterioration in
relations with the West, diplomats and analysts say.

"Rohani's political career depends on improving the economy. The oil price
fall is not helping the government. People are losing hope and in the
streets people speak of little else but economic hardship," said a senior
Western diplomat based in Tehran. — Reuters

+++SOURCE: Jordan Times 22 Jan.’15:”Shell to supply Jordan with liquefied
gas for five years”, by Mohammad Ghazan

SUBJECT: Shell gas to Jordan for 5 years

QUOTE:”Shell…will supply some 25%...of need for power generation

FULL TEXT:AMMAN — Royal Dutch Shell will start supplying liquefied natural
gas (LNG) to a terminal in Aqaba in July, Minister of Energy and Mineral
Resources Mohammad Hamed said Wednesday[21 Jan.].

Under the agreement between Shell and the National Electric Power Company,
Shell will provide the terminal with 150 million cubic feet of LNG per day,
said the minister after the signing ceremony.

Under the five-year agreement, Jordan will pay some $500 million per year
during the agreement's period at the current prices of LNG.

"This is a very important deal for Jordan and part of our efforts to
diversify energy resources," Hamed told The Jordan Times.

The quantities Shell will supply each day cover some 25 per cent of the
power company's daily needs for power generation, according to the minister.

Meanwhile, the minister said that starting July, the power company will
start buying 100 million cubic feet per day from international markets as
part of efforts to reduce losses and shift to less expensive gas than diesel
and heavy fuel for power generation, said the minister.

The minister added that work on the terminal is about 78 per cent complete
and that all necessary equipment and measures are already in place to start
receiving the LNG.

At the signing event, Thomas Meijssen, general manager and country chair of
the Jordan Oil Shale Company, fully owned by Shell, stressed the importance
of the agreement in meeting Jordan’s energy needs.

Jordan, which annually imports about 96 per cent of its energy needs, seeks
to diversify its energy sources following repeated cuts in natural gas
supplies from Egypt, which forced the Kingdom to buy heavy fuel and diesel
for power generation.

===============
Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA