Should the oil and gas industry worry about an ankle-biter? That’s what Iran seems like these days after the administration of US President George W. Bush reversed its view of the Iranians’ nuclear pretentions.
Yet, just last week, Bush said Iran had committed “a provocative act” in the Strait of Hormuz when Iranian speedboats approached three US navy ships and threatened that the ships would explode.
“It’s a dangerous situation and they should not have done it, pure and simple,” Bush said. “I don’t know what their thinking was but I’m telling you what I think it was.” He said, “It was a provocative act.”
The Strait of Hormuz, the most prominent choke point in the global crude oil trade, handles 17 million b/d of the world’s water-borne crude oil, more than a third of total shipments.
Iran is well aware of the effect that adverse moves in the region have on oil markets, but it dismissed US concerns about the incident, calling it routine for both sides.
‘Ordinary and natural’
“The example that happened on Saturday was similar to previous cases and is an ordinary and natural issue,” said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini.
“This is an ordinary issue that happens for the two sides every once in a while and, after the identification of the two sides, the issue is resolved,” he said.
For a while, at least, it may indeed have been resolved since the Iranians apparently have other fish to fry.
Iran has suspended supplies of natural gas to Turkey due to a cold weather front that brought a sharp fall in temperatures, rain and snow in the region, according to Turkish television reports.
Under a contract signed in 1996, Iran must ensure daily supplies of 28 million cu m of natural gas to Turkey via a 2,500-km pipeline connecting the two countries.
“Despite its pledge to ensure uninterrupted supply of natural gas during the winter, Iran failed to meet its obligations in the past 10 days and fully stopped energy supplies,” said Turkey’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Hilmi Guler.
Shivering in Turkey
Iran has in the past halted natural gas deliveries to Turkey several times during the winter citing increased domestic demand for the fuel.
Turkey has never built domestic fuel storage facilities and always compensated for the shortage of exports from Iran with additional supplies from Russia and other countries.
NTV television said Guler would ask Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to negotiate the issue of natural gas supplies with Russian and Iranian presidents.
“I have discussed the current situation (with gas supplies) with my Iranian counterpart, but now I will have to ask the head of the (Turkish) Cabinet to conduct direct negotiations with presidents of Russia and Iran,” Guler said.
Turning off the gas, now that’s a really provocative act. To the Iranians, though, it apparently is just another routine matter.
