By the OGJ Online Staff
HOUSTON, Feb. 19 -- Iran is positioned to be a major factor in world energy markets over the next decade if it can develop the transportation infrastructure to deliver its oil and natural gas to market, said a UK analyst at a conference on Middle East energy strategy in Tehran.
Iran has huge energy assets including 9% of the world's conventional oil reserves and 15% of global natural gas deposits, said Michael Ward Clegg from the UK office of the US-based Cambridge Energy Research Associates. He compared that to other Central Asian republics -- basically former members of the Soviet Union, excluding Russia -- whose reserves total 2% of world oil and 3.5% of world gas.
But Iran has yet to establish itself as a player in international gas markets and has failed so far to attract foreign investments in oil pipelines to exploit its "ideal location" for East Asian trade, said Clegg.
The break-up of the Soviet Union and resulting establishment of its former republics as independent states has transformed the politics and economy of Central Asia, Clegg said. Nowhere has that change been as marked as in the oil and gas sector, with the area's enormous potential reserves tempting western producers and other foreign investors.
Located on the periphery of that development, Iran has a long history of oil exports, good trading relations with buyers, and an "enviable" reserve base that can be exploited at competitive costs, said Clegg.
Moreover, he said, Iran's oil industry also would be a large consumer of natural gas for enhanced recovery of oil through pressure maintenance and gas-lift procedures.