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posted by LaminatorX on Monday March 03 2014, @11:30AM   Printer-friendly
from the you-don't-get-high-on-your-own-supply dept.

fx_68 writes:

"Despite holding the world's largest natural gas reserves, Iran's Energy Ministry has warned that the Islamic Republic is on course to become the world's largest importer of natural gas by 2025 unless it can rein in rampant domestic demand. Domestic consumption is surging as their gas network grows and more gas is needed to sustain output from aging oilfields."

 
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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by cmn32480 on Monday March 03 2014, @12:40PM

    by cmn32480 (443) <cmn32480NO@SPAMgmail.com> on Monday March 03 2014, @12:40PM (#10008) Journal

    So they are running out of natural gas. They have oil reserves that are approximately 10% of the global total (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_reserves_in_Iran ). They will very soon (if not already) have a "peaceful use only" nuclear program (providing you believe what the government of Iran and the US are telling you).

    Perhaps Iran needs to jump on the bandwagon looking for alternative energy sources with the rest of the world.

    --
    "It's a dog eat dog world, and I'm wearing Milkbone underwear" - Norm Peterson
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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by carguy on Monday March 03 2014, @01:01PM

    by carguy (568) Subscriber Badge on Monday March 03 2014, @01:01PM (#10013)

    Quick googles and a check on wikipedia came up blank for fracking in Iran. Does anyone know if drillers in Iran have tried the latest and greatest (also nastiest?) extraction techniques? They may have a lot more natural gas than the current estimates...

    • (Score: 4, Informative) by VLM on Monday March 03 2014, @02:00PM

      by VLM (445) on Monday March 03 2014, @02:00PM (#10032)

      Fracking does nothing useful unless its a tight gas well. Low permeability. Would just be wasting money and enormous amounts of valuable water. I googled around a bit and there's no discussion of tight gas wells in Iran. Oman, which isn't that far away, yeah. But Iran isn't Oman.

      Tight is like a tootsie roll pop you gotta whack it with a hammer or acid or something to get at the stuff in the middle. "normal" gas wells are more like a sponge, if you whack it with a hammer its not going to help, it'll just make a mess and waste money (and water).

      Article did miss the meta problem with Iran and natgas exports, which is they don't bother even trying because of sanctions etc no one wants to sell them liquification gear. If "they" are making it hard to export, why even bother trying to export anyway, especially if you can use it locally?

      Its not just "if you live in an area with natgas you're in danger of being fracked" its "if you live in an area with tight gas you're in danger of being fracked". Geologists like to talk and my very limited search indicates theres no economically important tight gas in Iran.

      This is aside from the liquification issue, if people aren't willing to ship you simple cheap refrigeration gear, they're not sending you the exotic machinery required for fracking.

      You can want all you want, but if the local manufacturing technology is at the level of village blacksmith, unless you can negotiate with a foreigner willing to trade with you, AND outbid another foreigner at the same time, you're pretty much outta luck, no matter if its a liquification plant or fracking stuff. May as well process it into AN fertilizer and ship fertilizer instead, or just use it locally.

  • (Score: 2, Informative) by dj245 on Monday March 03 2014, @06:21PM

    by dj245 (1530) on Monday March 03 2014, @06:21PM (#10145)

    So they are running out of natural gas. They have oil reserves that are approximately 10% of the global total (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_reserves_in_Iran ). They will very soon (if not already) have a "peaceful use only" nuclear program (providing you believe what the government of Iran and the US are telling you).

    Perhaps Iran needs to jump on the bandwagon looking for alternative energy sources with the rest of the world.

    Like nuclear for example??? The way you state it, their development of nuclear electricity is a symptom of an energy problem, not their solution.

    They are running out of gas and some projections have them running out of oil sooner rather than later. Iran has a very high energy footprint- they are a modern country and most people can afford refrigerators, TVs, etc. They are pretty smart and realize this is going to be a problem in the near future, and nuclear electricity plants take decades to build and commission. Their pursuit of Nuclear electricity is because they are worried about their future energy needs. If you can admit this is what they are trying to do, all of their foreign policy, as well as their insistence on having the right to build nuclear power stations, makes perfect sense.

    Maybe Iran's biggest foreign relations problem is that their PR guy isn't any good.