Interesting Article

[honus402]

I found an interisting article on the WEB. Seems to be a summary of what we have all read in this forum. I would also like to use a quote from this article about Iran.
"Natural gas is primarily made up of only one type of molecule, so the refining is already done for you. Most oil wells throw off a lot of natural gas. In many cases, it's more expensive to transport this gas to a large city than the gas is worth, so it's just burned off. For example, Iran burns off enough natural gas each day to power their entire country, electricity, cars, ships, airplanes, the whole thing. So the next time you hear Iran's nuclear reactors are purely for peaceful production of energy, you can wonder like the rest of us why a country that burns off more than their entire energy needs must spend tens of billions of dollars developing alternative energy sources."

Article: http://motorcycleinfo.calsci.com/Oils1.html

 

[labman]

If they really wanted to destroys us, they should forget about weapons and spend their oil money developing industry. Petroleum to refineries, to petrochemicals, to plastics, and finally consumer goods. Imagine China with cheap energy and materials. They have a great supply of silicon too.

 

[wulimaster]

quote:

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Originally posted by honus402:
For example, Iran burns off enough natural gas each day to power their entire country, electricity, cars, ships, airplanes, the whole thing. So the next time you hear Iran's nuclear reactors are purely for peaceful production of energy, you can wonder like the rest of us why a country that burns off more than their entire energy needs must spend tens of billions of dollars developing alternative energy sources."[/i]

Article: http://motorcycleinfo.calsci.com/Oils1.html

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Perhaps this will answer the question.

http://www.uic.com.au/nip08.htm


Iran has two main exportable products. Crude oil and natural gas (also LNG). Although it is cheaper for them to create electricity from natural gas fired plants, it is foolish economically to do so. The price of crude and natural gas will only go up and a doubling of the cost of uranium only increases the cost of electricity by 7% where electrical costs of coal and natural gas plants go up 35% to 70%. It is wiser to produce their electricity via the newer nuclear power plants than to build gas fired ones only to have to build nuclear ones later as the price of natural gas doubles and quadruples in the next few years as the US and Europe demand for imported gas increases. Far better to plan ahead for the price increases and needs than to foolishly build an infrastructure on wasteful technology.

In case you don't understand. If they can sell one years worth of natural gas which could be used to produce electrical power and then turn around and buy 3 years worth of nuclear electrical power in return, then that leaves them with 2 extra years of free electrical power and the extra 2 years worth of natural gas money to spend elsewhere in their economy.

My guess is the reason for flaring the gas is economics and a lack of any place to store it. They don't have the resources to pay for upgrading their oil and gas infrastructure and to pay for the nuclear power too. But you can bet that a lot of outside money will be willing and able to pay for upgrading it as "global peak oil" and "geographic peak gas" begins to arrive. Many countries are already negotiating with Iran for access to their natural gas reserves which are the second largest after Russia. India needs it as well as others.