Only a month after the National Iranian Oil Company signed a memorandum of understanding worth $40 billion with Russia's Gazprom to develop 7 oil and gas fields and complete other oil projects near the Persian Gulf, Iranian media revealed Tehran's intention to import surplus quantities of Russian gas.
Last Wednesday, Iranian Oil Minister Javad Oji discussed the purchase of Russian gas with Igor Levitin, the Russian president's chief aide, stressing that "in the near future, the final contract for the purchase and exchange of gas with Russia between the National Iranian Gas Company and its Russian counterpart will be signed in Moscow."
Given that Iran has the second largest gas reserves after Russia in the world, the move sparked controversy over the economic feasibility and its repercussions on the embattled Iranian economy.
On Tehran’s justification for importing gas from Russia, Al Jazeera.net polled the opinions of Iranian experts and analysts who were divided between those who see the decision to import surplus gas from the Russian ally aimed at circumventing Western sanctions against Moscow, and others who demand the need to develop infrastructure to re-export the imported gas to the neighborhood as well as to secure Part of the European need for energy.
The economic feasibility behind importing gas from Russia
Hamid Hosseini, head of the Iranian Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Exporters Syndicate, links the economic feasibility of the project to buying Russian gas at low prices and re-exporting it to transform Tehran into an energy hub in the region.
Hosseini explained to Al Jazeera Net, that the ground is available to deliver Russian gas to Iran through gas lines extending between Iran and Russia and the other between Turkmenistan and Armenia (Armenia), Azerbaijan and Russia, adding that his country was exporting gas to Russia even before the Iranian revolution and that those pipelines could be used to transport Russian gas to northern Iran.
He pointed out that Iranian gas exports to Iraq and Turkey decrease in the winter due to the rise in domestic consumption, stressing that Russian gas can be consumed in the northern regions of Iran and the surplus can be exported to neighboring countries that want to increase their imports of Iranian gas.
Hosseini saw importing Russian gas as an opportunity to develop infrastructure and export surplus to Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Sultanate of Oman, stressing that the Russian side announced its readiness to complete the laying of the gas pipeline inside Pakistani territory.
As Iran had finished laying the peace pipeline inside its territory.
Hamid Hosseini sees importing Russian gas as an opportunity to develop infrastructure and export surplus gas to neighboring countries (Iranian press)
opposition to the project
The former assistant to the head of the Parliamentary Energy Committee, Hedayatullah Khademi, describes "the claim that the country is able to buy Russian gas and sell it at more expensive prices is illogical, accusing Moscow of looking at Iran as a way to compensate for the markets it lost as a result of the war on Ukraine."
Khadmi criticized the concerned authorities in his country for presenting the project of importing gas from Russia as an achievement, while “condolences should be held” for such projects, stressing that his country lacks the necessary infrastructure to re-export Russian gas to neighboring countries, let alone export it to distant markets.
He explained - in press statements reported by the Iranian Sharq newspaper - that the capacity of gas transmission lines to Iraq and Turkey is limited, adding that his country should work on extracting gas from joint fields rather than laying new pipelines to re-export Russian gas.
He expressed his fear that the development of Iranian gas fields would stop in light of the focus on gas imports from Russia, stressing that Tehran's acceptance of gas imports from Russia means that it accepted its loss in global gas markets and turned into a gas importer, while it possesses the second largest reserves of this substance at the level Global.
Justifications for importing
Energy researcher Sohrab Rostami Kia believes that the Russian war on Ukraine has created an energy crisis on the green continent, but it has opened up prospects for circumventing US sanctions and delivering Iranian energy to Europe.
Rostami Kia explained - in his speech to Al Jazeera Net - that Iran has gained valuable experience in circumventing Western sanctions over the past decades, adding that Tehran can sell surplus energy - including Russian gas - in light of the sanctions, adding that the confrontation between the West and Russia will push Western countries To the rush to import energy from Iran, as he put it.
The Iranian researcher stressed that increasing his country's gas exports will enhance its position among gas-exporting countries, stressing that, according to available statistics, the Russians have a surplus of 75 billion cubic meters of gas and that his country is able to import about 20 billion cubic meters of it without the need to employ capital. To create new tubes.
Rostami Kia concluded that Tehran's failure to take advantage of the opportunity available to it would push the Russians to search for new customers;
Like Pakistan and Afghanistan, they will become a competitor to Iranian gas.
Hedayatullah Khademi expressed his fear of halting the development of Iranian gas fields in light of the focus on gas imports from Russia (Iranian press)
The reason for pessimism
The economic researcher, Gholam Reza Moghadam, believes that his country has not gained much from its cooperation with the Russians during the past decades, and that Moscow's slowdown in completing the project to build the Bushehr nuclear facility is the best evidence of this, adding that Russian competition was a major obstacle to the Iranian gas sector and its lack of a strong presence in the markets. Globalism.
He explained to Al Jazeera Net, that Russia today is obliged to get rid of surplus gas because it is unable to process a large amount of it and liquefy it, and that it will be forced to burn it if it is unable to sell it.
Moghadam considered that Iranian reliance on buying Russian gas and reselling it to Turkey will deprive the country of the opportunity to be present in European markets, stressing that Turkey is working to sign a long-term contract to buy Iranian gas and sell it to Europeans.
The Iranian researcher concluded that the two sides - Iranian and Russian - signed dozens of contracts and agreements during the past years, but they remained ink on paper, and none of them was announced.
Importing gas from Russia and circumventing Western sanctions
Political affairs researcher Saeed Shawardi believes that Iranian-Russian cooperation is likely to get around Western sanctions during the coming period. They supported it more than once in the UN Security Council.
In an interview with Al-Jazeera Net, Shawardi said that his country considers Russia a strategic partner at various levels - political, economic and military - stressing that Tehran will not abandon its Russian ally, just as Moscow did not abandon it when it was subjected to the harshest Western pressures.
The Iranian researcher expected to strengthen commercial cooperation between his country and Russia in light of the latter's determination to continue the war on Ukraine, stressing that the two sides may apply the experience of their oil cooperation to the surplus of Russian gas;
As Tehran had previously received shipments of Russian oil in its northern ports, it in turn delivered Iranian oil to Russia's customers in the Persian Gulf.