Page 62 - bnemagazine bne_December 2021_20211203.pdf

62 I Eurasia bne December 2021
Word of the immense potential of the Chalous field is spreading.
Russia strikes deal on Iran's multi-trillion dollar Chalous gas field as ‘final act securing control over European energy market’
It added: “To gain effective control over these new Iranian gas flows through securing such a stake in Chalous, Russia privately assured Iran that, in addition to development and exploration expertise, and some funding, it will also ‘seek to support Iran’s interests in the matter of the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan
of Action, or nuclear deal] and in other matters at the UN’.”
Supergiant Chalous
Russia’s Transneft has, meanwhile, purportedly in the past two weeks projected that supergiant Chalous alone can provide up to 72% of all of the natural gas requirements for Germany, Austria and Italy every year for the
full 20 years that the Chalous deal is set to run, while Chalous alone could supply up to 52% of all of the European Union’s gas needs over the period.
Previously, the estimates of Iran and Russia were that Chalous contained around 3.5 trillion cubic metres (tcm) of gas in place, equating to around one- quarter of the 14.2tcm of gas reserves contained in Iran’s supergiant South Pars natural gas field in the Persian Gulf that accounts for around 40% of Iran’s total estimated 33.8tcm of gas reserves.
OilPrice.com reported that it has learnt that, following further studies by Russia, the Chalous discovery is now seen as essentially a twin-field site, with the fields nine kilometres apart, with ‘Greater’ Chalous having 5.9tcm of gas in place,
bne IntelIiNews
Afinalised deal to develop Iran’s multi-trillion dollar new gas discovery, the Chalous field in the Caspian Sea, is reportedly regarded by Russian officials “as the final act
of securing control over the European energy market”.
Russian companies will hold the major share in the deal, followed by Chinese companies, and only then Iranian compa- nies, sources close to the agreement were reported as saying by OilPrice.com on November 15. The trade publication also reported that new calculations show that Iran, taking into account new estimates of the gas contained in Chalous, looks set to be soon recognised as holding the world’s largest gas reserves, dropping Russia into second place.
Explaining why Iran would relegate itself to third place behind Russia and China in the development and exploitation
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of Chalous, the media outlet said that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – the Iranian entity essentially controlling field development companies that will participate in Iran’s side of
“The deal is the price we have to pay for Iran’s access to the technology and manufacturing capacity required for our missile program”
the deal – "has stated in a series of internal discussions within the Iranian government recently that the new terms of the Chalous deal that have placed Russian and Chinese interests above those of Iran are ‘the price we have to pay for Iran’s access to the technology and manufacturing capacity required for our missile program’.”
and ‘Lesser’ Chalous having 1.2tcm of gas, giving a combined figure of 7.1tcm.
“Therefore,” the publication said, “the new Chalous figures would give Iran
a total natural gas reserves figure of 40.9tcm, whilst Russia – for a long time, the holder of the largest gas reserves
in the world – officially has just under