{"id":10724,"date":"2015-08-04T08:53:18","date_gmt":"2015-08-04T13:53:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=10724"},"modified":"2015-08-04T08:53:18","modified_gmt":"2015-08-04T13:53:18","slug":"reshuffling-eurasias-energy-deck-iran-china-and-pipelineistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=10724","title":{"rendered":"Reshuffling Eurasia\u2019s Energy Deck \u2014 Iran, China and Pipelineistan"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 class=\"headline\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/2015\/08\/04\/reshuffling-eurasias-energy-deck-iran-china-and-pipelineistan\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Reshuffling Eurasia\u2019s Energy Deck \u2014 Iran, China and Pipelineistan<\/a><\/h3>\n<p>Pipelineistan \u2013 the prime Eurasian energy chessboard \u2014 never sleeps.\u00a0Recently, it\u2019s Russia that has scored big on all fronts; two monster gas deals sealed with China last year; the launch of Turk Stream replacing South Stream; and the doubling of Nord Stream to Germany.<\/p>\n<p>Now, with the possibility of sanctions on Iran finally vanishing by late 2015\/early 2016, all elements will be in place for the revival of one of Pipelineistan\u2019s most spectacular soap operas, which I have been\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.tomdispatch.com\/post\/175071\/pepe_escobar_pipelineistan_goes_af_pak\">following<\/a>\u00a0for years; the competition between the IP (Iran-Pakistan) and TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) gas pipelines.<\/p>\n<p>The $7.5-billion IP had hit a wall for years now \u2013 a casualty of hardcore geopolitical power play. IP was initially IPI \u2013 connected to India; both India and Pakistan badly need Iranian energy. And yet relentless pressure from successive Bush and Obama administrations scared India out of the project. And then sanctions stalled it for good.<\/p>\n<p>Now, Pakistan\u2019s Minister of Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi swears IP is a go. The Iranian stretch of the 1,800-kilometer pipeline has already been built. IP originates in the massive South Pars gas fields \u2013 the largest in the world \u2013 and ends in the Pakistani city of Nawabshah, close to Karachi. The geopolitical significance of this steel umbilical cord linking Iran and Pakistan couldn\u2019t be more graphic.<\/p>\n<p>Enter \u2013 who else? \u2013 China. Chinese construction companies already started working on the stretch between Nawabshah and the key strategic port of Gwadar, close to the Iranian border.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-style-span\">China is financing the Pakistani stretch of IP. And for a very serious reason; IP, for which Gwadar is a key hub, is essential in a much larger long game; the $46 billion China-Pakistan economic corridor, which will ultimately link Xinjiang to the Persian Gulf via Pakistan. Yes, once again, we\u2019re right into New Silk Road(s) territory.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reshuffling Eurasia\u2019s Energy Deck \u2014 Iran, China and Pipelineistan Pipelineistan \u2013 the prime Eurasian energy chessboard \u2014 never sleeps.\u00a0Recently, it\u2019s Russia that has scored big on all fronts; two monster gas deals sealed with China last year; the launch of Turk Stream replacing South Stream; and the doubling of Nord Stream to Germany. Now, with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[130,5493,263,2369,349,441,7837,588,1745,694,1558,7838],"class_list":["post-10724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","category-geopolitics","tag-china","tag-counterpunch","tag-energy","tag-eurasia","tag-gas","tag-iran","tag-nord-stream","tag-oil","tag-pakistan","tag-russia","tag-south-stream","tag-turk-stream"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10724"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10725,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10724\/revisions\/10725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}