The State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) will start construction of a new natural gas pipeline to Iran this year, an official said Friday.

Nazim Samadzade, the deputy chief at Azerigas PU, said SOCAR is set to build the 200-kilometer (124-mile) Sangachal-Azadkend-Astara pipeline, UPI reported on Friday.

“It is expected that construction of the new pipeline will begin in 2010,” he added.

He noted that the new pipeline will be constructed to expand Azerbaijan’s pipeline options to Iran because current infrastructure was inadequate.

It will carry 18 million cubic meters of natural gas to Iran per day.

“The existing Kazi-Magomed-Astara gas pipeline was constructed in the 70s and has been operating for 40 years. The maximal pressure of gas at the gas pipeline makes 18 atmospheres. To supply gas to Iran it is necessary to compress this gas at the gas compressor station in Astara to 55,” Samadzade stated.

A senior Iranian oil official says Iran is ready to provide Switzerland with about one million cubic meters of natural gas per day.

“Already Iran is ready to start to its gas exports to this European country based on the contract,” the managing director of National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC), Seifollah Jashnsaz, told Mehr news agency.

The National Iranian Gas Export Company and Switzerland’s Elektrizitaetsgesellschaft Laufenburg signed a 25-year deal in March 2008 for the delivery of over 5 billion cubic meters of gas per year.

The deal was aimed at reducing Bern’s dependency on Russian gas.

Jashnsaz added that Switzerland and Turkey are in talks to pave the way for the delivery of Iranian gas.

“There is a possibility for exports of one million cubic meters of natural gas per day to Switzerland,” the official said.

In the first phase, Iran will export 1.5 billion cubic meters per year to Switzerland. The amount would be increased to an annual 4 billion cubic meters by 2012, Jashnsaz said.

US regulators have closed at least six more banks as the fallout from its financial crisis continues to be felt by smaller financial institutions across the country.

The banks closed on Friday include two in Georgia, the Community Bank & Trust, with $1.21 billion in assets, and the First National Bank of Georgia in Carrollton, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The latter, with about $833 million in assets, was found by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to be “critically undercapitalized” and to have engaged in “unsafe and unsound practices.”

The other four banks closed by the regulators were Florida Community Bank of Immokalee in Florida, Marshall Bank in Hallock, Minnesota, American Marine Bank of Bainbridge Island in Washington, and the First Regional Bank of Los Angeles.

The closures brought to 15 the number of US banks that were closed by regulators in 2010. Last year, 140 bank failures were reported.

The deposits of all six banks were sold off to other institutions.

The 40th World Economic Forum opened in the Swiss city of Davos with the aim of reviewing the status of the world’s economy.

Almost 2500 business leaders and important government officials have attended the five-day meeting to work together and address pressing challenges in order to strengthen world’s financial system.

The event, titled “Improve the State of the World: Rethink, Redesign, Rebuild” was opened by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Sarkozy said that it will not be possible to emerge from the global economic crisis and protect against future crises if the economic imbalances that are at the root of the problem are not addressed.

“Countries with trade surpluses must consume more and improve the living standards and social protection of their citizens,” he remarked. “Countries with deficits must make an effort to consume a little less and repay their debts.”

Banks and their future will be a main theme during the five days forum at Davos. Some bankers seem to be more confident about the recovery this year after they stayed away last year in the heat of the financial meltdown.

Muhammad Yunus, the Managing Director of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh said, “It is not only the great recession, I think, it is a bundle of crises, not one crisis, in the same period; the food crisis, the financial crisis, the global warming crisis.”

Peter Sands, the CEO of Britain’s Standard Chartered Bank said that his industry already has been “fundamentally changed” by tighter regulations and supervision, while Deutsche Bank Chairman Josef Ackermann said “we will all be losers” if governments clamp down on markets too zealously.

The forum’s Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab said that the future of Haiti after its devastating quake will also be discussed.

On Haiti, the forum has created a joint initiative with the Clinton Global Initiative and the United Nations to encourage business in the country’s long-term economic development.

“We hope that we can present a major common effort to the world community showing true corporate global citizenship in Davos,” Schwab said.

The slim US presence suggests that Davos is not a high priority for Obama’s administration. After years of top-level US participation under George W. Bush, this year, the highest US official attending the summit is Lawrence Summers, the Director of the National Economic Council.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki will declare the country’s initiatives for solving the global economic crisis, the foreign ministry spokesman says.

Ramin Mehman-Parast said on Wednesday that Mottaki will present Iran’s initiatives during the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum that will be held in Davos on January 27-31.

He noted that Iran’s top diplomat will leave Iran for Davos at the helm of a delegation on Thursday.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran will declare its viewpoints to help find the roots of the crisis and the ways to solve it,” IRNA quoted Mehman-Parast as saying.

Bank Melli Iran (BMI) is the largest bank in Iran and across the Islamic world, considering its total assets of around $54bn, a BMI official says.

The total assets of BMI at the end of second quarter of 1388 (September, 2009) have increased to US $59 billion, the head of financial department at BMI, Hojatollah Ghasemi, said Monday, denying reports that the bank is bankrupt.

Ghasemi said that BMI has no debt to Iran’s central Bank, adding that the bank has no delay in repaying its international commitments.

After a decision by Iran’s Finance Ministry to ban the withdrawal of more than 150 million rials (roughly $15,000) per day, a rumor spread that two major government-owned banks (Melli and Mellat) were on the verge of declaring bankruptcy.

A report released in September, 2009 by Asian Banker showed that the world’s top 100 Islamic banks increased their assets by 66% last year to more than US $580 billion, compared to $350 billion in 2007, while rivals were trying to deal with the global financial downturn.

According to the survey, BMI was standing at the top of the 100-bank’s list in terms of assets, while Saudi Arabia’s Al Rajhi Bank came in second.

“Iranian banks are still the predominant Islamic banking players, holding seven out of the top 10 ranks and 12 of the 100,” the Asian Banker said in reporting its research.

Iran’s Economy and Finance Minister says based on Iran’s fifth development plan, there is no limit on foreign investment in Iranian industrial or mineral sectors.

”The Iranian government will be trying to remove any obstacle in the financial domain by the end of the fifth development plan (2010-2015) to attract foreign investments,” said Shamsoddin Hosseini during a Sunday meeting with South African Parliament speaker, Max Sisulu, in Tehran.

He added that according to the plan, financial limitations will be removed for the banking, insurance and capital market.

Hosseini said that industrial and petrochemical factories as well as refinery projects are to be privatized during Iran’s fifth development plan, adding that foreign investors should make use of the opportunity.

Iran’s envoy to Russia has declared that a banking delegation from Russia will visit Iran to facilitate trade and economic ties between the two countries.

“Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Central Bank Viktor Melnikov and a group of officials from Russian banks will arrive in Tehran on Monday to settle the banking issues in order to facilitate the trade and economic ties between the two countries,” Iran’s Ambassador to Moscow, Mahmoud-Reza Sajjadi, told Fars news agency.

Sajjadi noted that Melnikov and the Russian delegation will hold talks with the Deputy Governor of Iran’s Central Bank, Seyyed Hamid Pour-Mohammadi, and heads of several other Iranian banks.

The Iranian envoy stated that Iran and Russia are committed to increasing the level of their bilateral trade ties to USD 5 billion in 2010.

Since the beginning of 2010, nine US banks have been forced to close in the toughest economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Regulators shut down five more banks on Friday in Florida, Missouri, Oregon, Washington and New Mexico. The five joined four other banks that were shut down earlier this year in Illinois, Minnesota and Utah.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) took over the five banks: Premier American Bank in Miami with USD 350.9 million in assets and USD 326.3 million in deposits; Seattle-based Evergreen Bank with USD 488.5 million in assets and USD 439.4 million in deposits; Charter Bank, based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with USD 1.2 billion in assets and USD 851.5 million in deposits and Bank of Leeton in Leeton, Missouri, with USD 20.1 million in assets and USD 20.4 million in deposits.

Beal Financial Corp., based in Texas agreed to assume the deposits and assets of Charter Bank. The FDIC and Beal Financial agreed to share losses on USD 805.5 million of the failed banks’ loans and other assets.

Umpqua Bank, based in Roseburg, Oregon, is assuming the deposits and assets of Evergreen Bank. The FDIC and Umpqua Bank agreed to share losses on USD 379.5 million of its loans and other assets.

The Washington-based Columbia State Bank agreed to buy the deposits and assets of Columbia River Bank. In addition, the FDIC and Columbia State Bank agreed to share losses on USD 697.4 million of its loans and other assets.

Last year, 140 failed US banks reached the highest annual level since 1992 in the wake of the savings and loan crisis.

“While the economy is showing signs of improvement, recovery in the banking industry tends to lag behind other sectors. We expect to see the level of failures continue to be high during 2010,” said Mitchell Glassman, director of the FDIC’s division of resolutions and receiverships, in a testimony before Congress.

According to Sheila Bair, FDIC Chairman, the main increasing driver of bank failures this year is trouble in the real estate sector.

The FDIC said it expects the total bill for bank failures to reach USD 100 billion for the period of 2009 through 2013.

Three banks in the United Sates have been shut down by state regulators, bringing the total number of bank failures in 2010 to four.

Town Community Bank and Trust of Antioch, Illinois and St. Stephen State Bank of St. Stephen, Minnesota have failed, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said on Friday.

The Barnes Banking Company of Kaysville, Utah, has also been seized, the Corporation tasked with managing banks in receiverships added.

The three have joined the 141 financial institutions closed since the worldwide recession hit the American economy last year.

The FDIC has advised customers of failed banks to continue to use their existing branch until they receive notice that the takeover has been completed.

They can access their money by writing checks or using ATM machines or debit cards, while borrowers should make mortgage and loan payments as usual, it added.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which has insured bank deposits since the Great Depression, currently covers accounts up to $250,000.

Iranian and Tanzanian officials endorsed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on economic cooperation in the fields of fishery, cement production and processing industry.

The MoU was signed on Saturday evening between head of commerce organization of Sistan and Baluchestan province in Iran and deputy minister for fishery and animal husbandry of Tanzania.

During the signing ceremony, the provincial official Iraj Hassanpour said that the MoU is related to dispatching and receiving trade delegations, joint economic cooperation in the field of fishery, cement production, and processing industry, especially in the field of meat production.

Head of Zahedan Chamber of Commerce Abdul Hakim Rigi, who attended the ceremony, said that the presence of Iranian expatriates in Tanzania since many years ago is a privilege for creating more relations with the country.

He added that Tanzania has had a 6% economic growth and one of Iran’s foreign economic priorities is interaction with African countries.

The Tanzanian deputy minister presented information about his country, and said that the main factor of his country’s economic activities is agriculture.

He added that there are a lot of opportunities in Tanzania for investment.

Iran is expected to launch its second trade center in overseas markets by February, says an Iranian economic official.

Hamid Zadboum, an official with the Trade Promotion Organization of Iran, said the center would become operational on January 26, 2010 in Oman.

In November 2009, Iran opened its first overseas-based commercial center in Shanghai.

Zadboum added that some 60 Iranian companies would operate from the proposed center located in the Persian Gulf littoral state of Oman.

The Iranian government has allocated one billion dollars in loans to set up 20 trade centers across the world.

“Tehran aims to promote its economic and commercial capabilities by launching the trade centers,” deputy of the Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Mines Mohammad Davaei said.

He added that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had approved funding a one-billion-dollar loan for the project.

Davaei revealed that Iran has started the construction of two centers in Sudan and Azerbaijan.

He predicted that the completion of each project would take about two-three years.

Iran and Russia should use their national currencies in settling accounts for bilateral projects, an Iranian oil official suggests during talks.

“We want our national currencies to be used in our projects,” Iran’s Deputy Oil Minister Hossein Noghrehkar Shirazi told reporters on Wednesday in Moscow, adding that this measure would speed up the implementation of large bilateral projects.

The Iranian official also proposed the set-up of a bank for the purpose as part of a long-term energy cooperation plan.

The statement of the Iranian official visiting Moscow offers support for Russia’s drive for a more extensive use of national currencies and less of the US dollar.

Shirazi was attending a meeting of the Russian-Iranian working group on cooperation in the oil, gas and petrochemical spheres in Moscow. The group intends to map out a plan for energy cooperation over the next 30 years.

Shirazi also said that Iran planned to double gas output in the next five years to 1 billion cubic meters a day, increase oil production by 1 million barrels per day to 5 million bbl/d, and build new oil refineries and petrochemical plants.

In November, Russia’s central bank said Brazil is interested in settling bilateral trade accounts in rubles and Iranian rials.

Alexander Potemkin, an adviser to the Russian central bank chairman, has said that settlements in yuans and rubles already account for around 2 percent of Russia’s trade with China.

Earlier in November, the head of Iran’s Bank Melli (BMI) said Iran’s Central Bank and BMI have entered into negotiations with several/some countries and international banks regarding the use of the Iranian rial, the official currency of Iran, in international transactions and operations.

“Some countries have agreed to use the Iranian rial for payment in some transactions,” said Mahmoud Reza Khavari, President and CEO of Bank Melli Iran, who also heads the coordination council of the CEOs of Iranian banks.

The moves by the two countries come as they try to reduce dependence and find an alternative to the US dollar. The credibility of the greenback has been eroded by the global economic crisis.

Iran Khodro Company (IKCO) plans to produce more than 300,000 economy engines during the next Iranian calendar year (starting March 21, 2010).

“Following the strategy of reducing fuel consumption, IKCO will allocate 50 percent of its production capacity to low consumption engines in the next year,” said IKCO Deputy Chief Executive (CEO) for Powertrain, Ali Sheikhzadeh.

“Producing this number of low consumption engines can
be considered a leap forward in enjoying the EF7 and TU5 engines on IKCO products,” he added.

Sheikhzadeh says the launch of an economy engine production line with the capacity of 1,000 units a day will lead IKCO toward the goal of replacing high consumption engines with those with lower consumption rates.

Iran Khodro Company (IKCO) says it has exported 20,000 passenger cars since the beginning of the Iranian calendar year (March 21, 2009).

The IKCO expects the number to reach 36,000 cars by March, 2010.

“IKCO has exported some 3,000 CKD cars in the same period that will increase to 4500 units by this March,” said Amir-Abbas Hosseini, IKCO Vice Deputy for Export Affairs.

The regional markets including Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan, and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries as well as Switzerland and Eastern Europe states such as Bulgaria are among the top markets of IKCO, he said.

“Samand, among IKCO products, holds the largest share of the export to the European and CIS countries,” said Hosseini.

Citing the cooperation with Peugeot and other partners, he said that IKCO plans to increase its profitability and expand product portfolios in its overseas sites.

In its latest report, IDRO Export and the International Cooperation Development office ranked IKCO as the exporting the most vehicles among IDRO subsidiaries in the first half of the year.

A small bank in the state of Washington has become the first US bank to collapse in 2010, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) says.

On Friday, State regulators seized the Horizon Bank based in Bellingham and its 18 branches.

FDIC, which has insured bank deposits since the Great Depression and currently covers accounts up to $250,000, said that Horizon customers are protected.

A total of 140 banks failed in 2009 —the highest number since 1992, when 181 banks failed. But that tally is far from 1989’s record high of 534 closures which took place during the savings and loan crisis.

The spike in failures has raised concerns about the FDIC’s deposit insurance fund, which has slipped into the red for the first time since 1991.

Horizon Bank’s estimated 1.3 billion dollars in assets and 1.1 billion dollars in deposits are being assumed by Washington Federal Savings and Loan Association, of Seattle, Washington, the FDIC said.

IRI Minister of Economy and Finance affairs Sayyed Shams al-Din Hosseini called for immediate establishment of IRI-Syria joint bank.

During a meeting with Syrian Economy and Trade Minister Amer Hassan Lotfi, Hosseini said relations of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Syria is in the benefit of both countries.

Stressing that the two countries’ trade ties should be promoted, he said volume of IRI-Syria economic relations is not appropriate.

The main reasons behind slow growth of the two countries’ trade ties should be studied, he added.

Hoseini said promotion of bilateral and trilateral relations among the Islamic Republic of Iran, Syria, Turkey and other regional nations would decrease effects of the world economic crisis.

Syrian Economy and Trade Minister Amer Hassan Lotfi, for his turn, announced that a gathering will be held in Damascus on February at the presence of Iranian and Syrian businessmen.

He described the gathering as an appropriate opportunity for the two countries’ private sectors to settle their problems and remove some obstacles they are faced with.

Iran and Turkmenistan have launched a new gas pipeline to raise natural gas supplies to the Islamic Republic by 20 billion cubic meters (bcm) a year.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Turkmen counterpart Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov attended a ceremony to inaugurate the new 31-kilometer pipeline at the Dovletebad gas field in southeastern Turkmenistan.

Iran currently imports about 8 billion bcm a year from Turkmenistan via another pipeline.

“…launching the pipeline… will allow (Turkmenistan), along with existing facilities, to raise natural gas supplies to Iran to 20 billion cubic meters a year,” the Turkmen Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“The gas pipeline that is being opened today will take our relations to a new level,” Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday.

Iran uses Turkmen gas to supply its northern provinces and free up more of its own gas for exports.

“The realization of the gas pipeline plays a big role in strengthening the energy security of the countries of the region,” Ahmadinejad told reporters after talks with Berdymukhamedov in Ashgabat on Tuesday.

“The Turkmenistan-Iran pipeline is not only an economic project but an event uniting our countries with the aim of strengthening our partnership,” he said.

A senior Iranian official says five foreign banks are awaiting approval of a law in the Majlis (Parliament) to open branches in Iran.

“The proposal for setting up of five foreign banks is on my table but the fifth clause of article 44 (of the constitution) does not permit their operations,” said Behrouz Alishiri, the head of the Organization for Investment, Economic and Technical Assistance of Iran (OIETAI).

Article 44 of the Iranian Constitution had heretofore placed banking activities exclusively in the hands of government. In tandem with the Law on Usury Free Banking Operations, these two measures effectively blocked foreign banking operations from conducting business in mainland Iran.

A handful of foreign bank branches and representative offices extant in the country were allowed to undertake administrative and coordination activities but were not permitted to open customer accounts inside the territory of mainland Iran, receive deposits or extend normative facilities.

Foreign banks were, however, under special conditions, allowed to function in the Iranian free zones.

Alishiri says the Economy and Finance Ministry has sent a bill, concerning the establishment of foreign banks in Iran, to the Parliament to pave the way for the presence of the banks.

“Any delay in approval of the bill will cause damage to economic activities in the country,” he added.

Earlier in December, the economic committee of the Parliament approved the principle provisions of the bill.

“The main provisions of the establishment of foreign banks in Iran via a joint investment by natural or legal persons and through an approval by the Iranian money and credit council, have been approved,” Spokesman for the Majlis’ economic committee Mohammad-Reza Khabbaz told IRNA.

He added that the setup of foreign banks in Iran would be allowed in different forms of commercial companies.

“The economic committee amended the fifth clause of the article 44 of the constitution for the move to be feasable,” he said.

Khabbaz said that discussion over the details of the bill would start in two weeks.

Iran and Turkmenistan are to be connected by a second gas pipeline during a visit by the Iranian President to the central Asian state next week.

“The new pipeline could raise the volume of Turkmenistan’s exported gas to Iran up to 14 billion cubic meters annually,” Iran’s Ambassador to Ashgabat, Mohammad-Reza Forqani, told Iran’s Mehr News Agency on Tuesday.

He added that the 65 km gas pipeline has been completed in only four months, thus being considered as one of the world’s fastest gas projects.

The new pipeline will pump natural gas from the Dovletabat gas field in southeastern Turkmenistan, which has so far only been transferred to Russia.

Iranian contractors are to carry out the project.

Bilateral trade between Iran and Turkmenistan reached $1.7 billion in 2007, over $1.4 billion of which consisted of Iranian exports to Turkmenistan.

Turkmenistan announced in July 2009 that Ashgabat and Tehran have agreed to significantly expand Turkmen gas exports to Iran.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is expected to visit Turkmenistan on 5th and 6th January 2010 to inaugurate the Turkmenistan-Iran gas pipeline.

The Atrak-Gorgan railway worth around $650 million is another project to be launched in the presence of the Iranian president during the visit.

Iran’s Oil Transportation Company announced in September that it was ready to transfer gas from Turkmenistan to Iraq and the UAE.

“The nationwide gas network is now connected to neighboring countries from six locales,” the managing director of the company, Reza Almasi said.

Tehran and Ashgabat signed an agreement in February 2009, which would allow Iran to develop the Yolatan gas field in Turkmenistan and import a portion of the extracted gas annually.

Earlier in November, Turkmenistan said it has completed the construction of a gas pipeline to Iran that will help Ashgabat reduce its reliance on Russian-owned export routes.