By Rhod Mackenzie

Iran decided to keep up with Turkey and, following the Turkish gas hub project, announced plans to create its own gas hub in the Persian Gulf with the participation of Russia, Turkmenistan and Qatar.

“We have the second largest gas reserves in the world, so we plan to create a gas hub in the Assaluyeh region in cooperation with Russia, Qatar and Turkmenistan,” Iranian Oil Minister Javad Ouji said. At the same time, Mr. Oudzhi did not name possible terms for the implementation of the project.

In May, the minister reported that Tehran and Moscow were discussing the development of ten new oil and gas fields in Iran. According to him, the authorities of the Islamic Republic are negotiating with Gazprom, with which Ougi estimated joint projects at $40 billion.

Pakistan and India will be obvious interested in a promising gas hub in Iran, demonstrating a huge increase in demand for gas. For many years, several options for its satisfaction have been considered. These are the TAPI main transboundary gas pipeline from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan, the IPI gas pipeline (Iran-Pakistan-India) and, finally, the Pakistan Stream main pipe, which will connect the port of Karachi (and possibly another southern Pakistani port of Gwadar) with the industrial center of Lahore on north of the country. The resource base of these projects will be deposits in the south of Turkmenistan and in the south of Iran, respectively. And the Pakistan Stream is supposed to be supplied with regasified liquefied natural gas.

"Expert" turned for comments to the industry expert Valery Semikashev , head of the fuel and energy complex forecasting laboratory of the Institute of Economic Forecasting of the Russian Academy of Sciences:

— How do the TAPI, FDI and Pakistan Stream projects compare? What configuration of projects is most beneficial for Russia?

• In part, these are competing projects. It seems to me that it is necessary to build both TAPI and FDI as projects are developed. At the same time, I still see the role of a reliable transit country for Afghanistan as premature.

— How is the Turkish gas hub project progressing? What are the obstacles to the development of this project? Is it planned to connect Iran to the Turkish gas hub and, if so, in what volumes?

• So far, the potential scale of operations at the Turkish hub is seen in the amount of five to seven billion cubic meters. For the European market, these are insignificant volumes, however, they are sufficient to form a regional price target. Iran's participation in the Turkish gas hub project has not yet been discussed.

— How is Russia's cooperation in the gas sector developing with Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan? There are forecasts that both countries will soon become net importers of gas. What volumes of gas exports to these countries could Russia claim?

• On the part of Russia, this was a proposal to form joint projects not in production or transit, as is usually the case, but along the entire chain. For Russia, an important point is that on the basis of such an alliance, swap transactions can be carried out with the participation of Iran and/or Turkmenistan. So far there is no interest from the neighbors.

• How is the project for the construction of the fourth branch (line D) of the Turkmenistan-China gas pipeline progressing? How serious is this project for Power of Siberia 2?

— Projects are not competitors. "The Power of Siberia - 2", I think, will be discussed for a long time. And on questions of price, and in terms of volumes, and maybe even on the route.

I am ready to bet that China will take all the gas offered in the next twenty years.

This article orginally appeared in Russian at expert.ru