Iran’s Vital Role in the Global Gas Market
By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer
Iran, which possess the world’s second largest natural gas reserves, recently hosted the 26th ministerial meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) as part of its drive to promote clean energy worldwide.
Global demand for natural gas has risen by 70 percent since the setting of the GECF in 2001 as more countries turn to clean energy sources free of carbon emissions polluting the Earth’s atmosphere, water resources, and crops, resulting in the spread of hitherto new diseases.
The Tehran meeting, attended by all 12 members countries and the 8 observer states, discussed various issues of cooperation, noting that the GECF members together control over 71 percent of the world’s natural proven gas reserves, 44 percent of its marketed production, 53 percent of the pipelines, and 57 percent of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports across the globe.[
Headquartered in the Qatari capital Doha, GECF has a bright future. Experts addressing the meeting predicted that global natural gas consumption would see a further 34-percent increase by the year 2050, with Russia, Iran, Qatar, and Turkmenistan playing the leading roles.
The Islamic Republic of Iran with its strategic geopolitical location and accounting for 34 trillion cubic meters, or about 17.8 percent of the world’s total natural gas reserves, plays a vital role.
Despite years of sanctions, Iran has made significant progress in expanding its gas sector. It currently produces 275 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually. Gas accounts for more than 70 percent of its energy consumption.
The Islamic Republic in addition to its extensive nationwide network of gas pipelines serving almost all cities, towns, and even villages, has pipeline connections to Turkiye, Turkmenistan, Iraq, and Armenia, while the long mooted ‘peace pipeline’ to the Subcontinent lies dormant.
Initially it were the political differences between Pakistan and India that stalled Iran’s gas exports to the east, and now Islamabad’s hesitancy to import because of undue US pressures, despite Tehran’s goodwill in laying the pipeline right up to its borders with its eastern neighbor.
Anyway, Iran continues to export liquefied natural gas in bulk quantity via ships to other countries, indicating its important role in gas diplomacy in order to guarantee its national interests and the interests of the importing countries.
Presently, China is the largest consumer of natural gas in the region with around 405 billion cubic meters, followed by Japan with a consumption of around 92.4 billion cubic meters. The Asia-Pacific region’s gas consumption may total 1.6 trillion cubic meters by 2050.
Participants also reviewed the fallout from political developments adversely affecting natural gas exports because of the NATO war against Russia in Ukraine, as well as Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, the fragile truce in the Zionist war on Lebanon, and the instability in Syria following collapse of the 54-year rule of the al-Assad family.