Pipeline Geopolitics: Major Turnaround. Russia, China, Iran Redraw Energy Map

(Is it merely a coincidence that the deadline set by President Obama coincided so smoothly with the projected start-up date of Iran’s Dauletabad-Sarakhs-Khangiran pipeline? After all, we invaded Afghanistan to give assurances for the Trans-Afghan Pipeline deal; a pipeline that would transport Caspian Sea LNG reserves to sea and then by boat to the emerging markets in South China. Now, as the LNG is flowing from this new pipeline into Iran and then into ships to carry it along international waterways, the “sanctions” that Hillary Clinton and President Obama are talking about threaten to cut off the shipping lanes.)

by Amb. M. K. Bhadrakumar, Global Research
The inauguration of the Dauletabad-Sarakhs-Khangiran pipeline in early January connecting Iran’s northern Caspian region with Turkmenistan’s vast gas field may go unnoticed amid the Western media cacophony that it is “apocalypse now” for the Islamic regime in Tehran.

The event sends strong messages for regional security. Within the space of three weeks, Turkmenistan has committed its entire gas exports to China, Russia and Iran. It has no urgent need of the pipelines that the United States and the European Union have been advancing. Are we hearing the faint notes of a Russia-China-Iran symphony?

The 182-kilometer Turkmen-Iranian pipeline starts modestly with the pumping of 8 billion cubic meters (bcm) of Turkmen gas. But its annual capacity is 20bcm, and that would meet the energy requirements of Iran’s Caspian region and enable Tehran to free its own gas production in the southern fields for export. The mutual interest is perfect: Ashgabat gets an assured market next door; northern Iran can consume without fear of winter shortages; Tehran can generate more surplus for exports; Turkmenistan can seek transportation routes to the world market via Iran; and Iran can aspire to take advantage of its excellent geographical location as a hub for the Turkmen exports.

We are witnessing a new pattern of energy cooperation at the regional level that dispenses with Big Oil. Russia traditionally takes the lead. China and Iran follow the example. Russia, Iran and Turkmenistan hold respectively the world’s largest, second-largest and fourth-largest gas reserves. And China will be consumer par excellence in this century. The matter is of profound consequence to the US global strategy.

[read the rest of this important essay at Global Research, here]