The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says that Iran is on track with its obligations under the landmark nuclear agreement reached in July. The head of the IAEA, Yukiya Amano, confirmed that the agency’s inspectors were in Iran and had access to the Parchin military site as part of its investigation into Iran’s past nuclear activities. Amano says that Iranian officials cooperated and granted access to investigators.
IAEA personnel have long been barred from the Parchin facility, where the international community believes Iran worked on nuclear weapons research and technology. Up until now, the outside world has only observed the facility via satellite.
The announcement that Iran has given access to the IAEA puts Iran on course to meet its side of the nuclear deal reached with the P5+1 countries in July, a prerequisite to the removal of western sanctions. Also, with the deal free of attacks from the U.S. Congress, implementation is looking increasingly likely.
The IAEA is set to release the results of its investigation by December 15 of this year, a pivotal event that will determine the next steps for Iranian sanctions. If removed, Iran could return a significant portion of its oil production capacity to market, adding to global supplies.
A new Wood Mackenzie report finds that an estimated $1.5 trillion worth of oil and gas investment is “out of the money” when oil prices trade at just $50 per barrel. If prices don’t rebound, a significant volume of oil projects may not move forward. In fact, the report finds that only around 10 or 11 new upstream projects could get the go-ahead in 2016, down from 50 to 60 in a normal year. Around $220 billion worth of investment has already been cancelled, with more cuts in spending programs not far off.
The staggering sum will be felt disproportionately by North American shale, which suffers from higher costs. The oilfield service sector will also continue to get hit extremely hard, as drillers not only cutback on new projects, but are looking to squeeze costs out of service companies.
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