Russia has secured the largest share of the vast natural gas discovery in Iran’s Chalous region, an assurance that could spark huge economic and geopolitical developments in Russia’s control of the European energy market.
While Iran appears to be financially losing out of this deal, the Islamic Republic will gain geopolitical support and the IRGG (Guards of the Revolution) a large capital and advanced weapons systems that can be used against Israel and its allies.
On November 17, the German Federal Network Service announced the temporary suspension of the Nord stream 2 certification process, citing a legal hurdle. The decision struck hopes that the pipeline would deliver significant gas supplies in the coming months and caused a rift in the EU energy market.
The super-giant Chalous gas field
Although the Chalous field is located in the Iranian sector of the Caspian Sea, the Russian, Chinese and later Iranian oil and gas companies, respectively, will hold most of this agreement.
Additional investments of billions of dollars have been planned by financial institutions in Germany, Austria and Italy. This is how Eurasia begins to be connected through Russia’s control of the European energy market.
The wider Caspian Sea basin, including both onshore and offshore deposits, is estimated to have about 48 billion barrels of oil and 292 trillion cubic meters of natural gas. The field includes the large Chalous with 5.9 trillion cubic meters (tcm) of gas and the small Chalous with 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas giving a combination of 7.1 trillion – cubic meters of gas.
Following the upgrade of estimates for Chalous gas reserves and gas prices in Europe, the new distribution of shares in Chalous combined facilities is as follows:
• Russia (Gazprom & Trasneft) 40%
• China (CNPC & CNOOC) 28%
• Iran (KEPCO) 25% & IRGG (Guards of Islamic Revolution) 7%
Russian transneft predicted that Chalous alone could supply up to 72% of its total gas needs to Germany, Austria and Italy each year for a full 20 years.
The Chalous field alone could cover up to 52% of the EU’s total gas needs for the same period. Russia in exchange for control of its deposit Chalous secretly assured Iran that in addition to know-how, research and funding, he would support Iran’s issues on the International Political Chessboard.
