in that sector. And indeed it seems that Iran, despite sanctions, has garnered enough support from foreign partners to build a natural gas pipeline that would rival the U.S.-backed Nabucco pipeline. Iran would connect with Iraq and Syria to complete the project. It also seems that their other project, the IPI pipeline through se asia involving Pakistan and/or India is back up for discussion with those nations after running into problems. So Iran seems to be doing a competitive business.
Iran has the world’s second-largest natural gas reserves after Russia, with some 28 trillion cubic meters of proved reserves, or 16 per cent of the world’s total.
Some of the activities around Iranian oil/gas pipelines that have taken place over the last two years.
Costly underwater pipeline back on India-Iran talks tableJuly 2010
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-07-11/... ---
Iran official says pipeline blast caused by ‘sabotage’April 2011
TEHRAN — A large explosion at Iran’s main energy pipeline hub Friday was caused by sabotage, an influential member of Parliament said Sunday.
The blast, which sent balls of fire into the air outside the Shiite religious center of Qom, targeted three major gas pipelines. The explosion comes amid an increase in mysterious blasts, assassinations and other incidents in the Islamic Republic, including a similar blast Feb. 11 that temporarily halted north-south gas transportation in the country. All pipelines are now back in operation, officials say.
..//..
Iranian officials have connected the past year’s incidents to actions by foreign-backed terrorist groups or to unexplained accidents. Iran’s leaders blamed the United States, Britain and Israel for two separate high-profile assassinations of scientists in Tehran last year. But a major explosion at a Revolutionary Guards base near the city of Khorramabad in October that killed an unknown number of servicemen was said to be caused by a fire at a munitions depot.
In recent weeks, six Iranian security officials in the ethnic province of Kurdistan have been assassinated by unknown assailants. That region was also the scene of a mass bombing in September that killed 12 members of the Revolutionary Guards, including commanders. Iran has blamed a separatist group, which it says is backed by the United States, for the killings. But the Party of Free Life Kurdistan, or Pejak, has strongly denied playing any role in either the assassinations or the bombing.
The incidents come amid increasing tensions between Iran and the Persian Gulf states over the March military intervention of Saudi Arabia in Bahrain and the busting of an alleged Iranian spy ring in Kuwait...cont'd
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/iran-pipeline-blast... ---
$10 billion Mid-East gas pipeline aims at EU markets26 July, 2011
The pipeline is to transport gas extracted at Iran’s South Pars gas field through territories of Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, and further across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe. The project, with an estimated cost of $10 billion, will take three to five years to complete, officials say.
The pipeline will have the maximum discharge of 110 million cubic meters of gas daily. Iraq says it will be buying between 10 and 15 million cubic meters of that amount until at least 2020. Syria wants 15 to 20 million cubic meters and Lebanon is to claim five to seven million cubic meters. The rest is to be sold to European consumers, the Middle-Eastern partners hope.
The planned pipeline has a secured supply of gas, with the South Pars field holding some 16 trillion cubic meters of the fuel, head of Iran’s state gas company NIGS, Javad Owji, said after the Memorandum of Understanding was inked by the ministers on Monday. This is a necessary condition for such a pipeline project, which the Nabucco project does not meet, he pointed out.
Nabucco is the project supported by the EU, which is to transport natural gas from Central Asia to Europe via Turkey. Its major drawback is a lack of supply, since Russia has contracted most of gas, which will be extracted by countries in the region for decades to come. Iran was considered as a possible source of gas for Nabucco, but was ruled out after the US and EU imposed sanctions against Tehran over its controversial nuclear power program.
Iraqi Oil Minister Abdul Kareem Luaibi said his country is not barred from dealing with Tehran by those notions.
“Presently, Iraq is an independent country, and the sanctions by the US and other Western countries could have no effect on our relations with Iran,” the minister said on Monday as cited by Iran’s Press TV.
The oil ministers of Iran, Iraq and Syria have agreed on the construction of a 5,000-km pipeline, which is designed to transport Iranian natural gas westwards. The project will compete against the European Nabucco project.
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Foreign lenders back pipeline, Iran saysAug. 5, 2011
TEHRAN, Aug. 5 (UPI) -- There are at least six international investors ready to back Iran's plans to build a natural gas pipeline through Iraq to Syria, the deputy oil minister said.
Iran, Iraq and Syria last month signed off on the proposed 3,480-mile natural gas pipeline from the South Pars gas complex in the Persian Gulf.
..//..
Tehran suggests the project could rival Europe's Nabucco pipeline, a project in which Iran was eager to take part.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office report concluded that, while most foreign companies had left Iran in part because of the tough economic conditions brought on by sanctions, 16 companies ranging from the China National Petroleum Corp. to Italy's Edison remain active in the Iranian energy sector...cont'd
Read more:
http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Energy-Resources/2011/... --
Syria hotbed of major geopolitical game.."The veto cast by Russia and China on the UN resolution on Syria reflects the gravity of the situation," Dr. Chandra Muzaffar, the President of the International Movement for a Just World., told RT. "Both Russia and China know that a resolution by the Security Council opens door for military intervention by NATO," he says.
“It would be another attempt to oust an Arab government and replace it with a government which is sympathetic to the larger geopolitical aims of Washington, London, Paris, and other Western countries.”
"Washington is pressing Syrian regime because Bashar Assad’s ouster would allow it change the geopolitics of the entire region," states Dr. Muzaffar. ..cont'd
http://rt.com/news/syria-resolution-geopolitcal-game-115
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