Monday, March 1, 2010

Iran Losing Race to Qatar in Developing Natural Gas Fields

Correction: The word “Losing” in this post’s original title was misspelled and is now corrected. Our apologies to our readers for the mistake.

South Pars/North Dome natural gas field is the world’s largest, located in the Persian Gulf and shared between Iran and Qatar. The huge field covers nearly 4,000 square kilometers inside Iranian territorial waters, known as South Pars. Qatari field covers 6,000 square kilometers and is known as North Dome. The field’s reserves are estimated at some 1,800 trillion cubic feet (tcf), making it the world’s biggest hydrocarbon accumulation (for comparison, the field’s volume of natural gas reserves is 360 billion barrels of oil equivalent).

The Qatari government so far has invested more than $400 billion in developing North Dome, including the construction of the world’s most modern liquid gas plant and terminal. Iran has invested only $40 billion on South Pars and associated investments in Assaluyeh. As a result, Qatar’s natural gas production from the field surpasses Iran’s by an order of magnitude.

Iranian efforts in developing the South Pars had been hampered by construction delays, which is led by Khatam-ol Anbia, the construction arm of IRGC. Only seven out of the planned 28 phases of construction has been finished so far. ILNA reports that Iranian experts do not expect completion of any additional phases in the next two years [ILNA, 1 March 2010]. Meanwhile Qataris are racing to further develop the North Dome.

As much as IRGC is regarded as the country’s most competent fighting force, their foray into business ventures, such as South Pars, is resulting in major problems for the country’s development projects.

The Iranian government’s economic policies have also greatly contributed to the problems in South Pars. In the first four years of Ahmadinejad’s administration, Iran was selling its crude oil at record prices, reaching $140/bbl. But the government allocated only a small portion of its fortune to develop country’s gas and oil fields. ILNA reports that last year, only 13% of oil revenues were earmarked for oil and gas field maintenance and investment projects [ILNA, 1 MARCH 2010].

It seems a combination of government’s resolve to invest in country’s future and IRGC incompetence in leading civilian development projects are the factors behind Iran’s loosing its race to Qatar in developing its natural gas resources.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't overlook the effect of sanctions in this comparison between Qatar and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

While in certain cases this may take on the dimension of a "race", keep in mind these energy resources will come out of the ground some time, and when they do Iran will benefit from them.

David B Roberts said...

Interesting stuff.

I've thought for a while now that the shared field is Qatar and Iran's best source of stability as well as their best chance of a potential flash-point.

Whilst the field is enormous, at some point Tehran must start to get somewhat perturbed that Qatar is sucking out exponentially more gas than they are. ‘Gas’, after all, abhors a vacuum and doesn't stay in one place.

Can I ask where you got your figures from on the totals that each country has spent in their fields?

Nader Uskowi said...

Anon,

Sanctions have indeed hurt Iran's efforts to develop South Pars, even though the government denies it. The country's nuclear program has been very costly for Iran. Still, Iran had the cash and could have found ways to invest in oil and gas. Please note they could find ways to go around sanctions and invest in nuclear technology, a more sensitive field.

David,

The $40 billion figures of the total Iranian investment on South Pars and Assaluyeh are from the country's state-owned oil company. ILNA news agency report uses their figures. Qatari figures are available from multiple sources.

Anonymous said...

Correction to be made: replace 'loosing' with 'losing' in the title.

I like that you are now posting your source(s) and the date retrieved.

This is a fantastic site!

Nader Uskowi said...

Anon 10:57,

Thanks for the correction, I'll make the change.

Anonymous said...

In the last 30 years, Iran is supposed to have lost soooo much.

But at the end of the day, they are soooo far.

Please do not be so short sighted. its a long term game, this geopolitical thing.

"juje ro akhare paeez beshmareed"

God Bless Iran