U.S. domestic oil companies like Triple Diamond Energy Corp. understand the challenges of supplying oil to a country with a growing population and a thirst for oil. In India the population has been growing at a staggering rate of 7% per year.  This growth might not seem that impressive on paper, but when compared to the rest of the world, this growth is enormous. 

Naturally, this large jump in the population has created a need for a greater energy supply.  In order to meet this new need, India and Iran reached an agreement that would provide India with 1.2 million metric tons of liquefied natural gas each year for $40 billion dollars.

Iran: The Second Largest Oil Producer in the World

Iran currently posses a natural gas reserve that is second only to the Russian gas reserves.  The estimated natural gas reserves of Iran are 812 trillion cubic feet.  This amount makes up 9% of the natural gas reserves found on the entire planet.  In order to help its wildly fluctuating economy, Iran planned to make billions by signing export deals with countries whose increasing populations required larger amounts of gas. 

In 1995, less than ten years after the discovery of its oil field, Iran and Pakistan reached an agreement that allowed Iran to construct a major pipeline.  The pipeline proposed would begin in the oil fields of Iran and end in the Pakistan industrial port of Karachi.  Later, the Iranian government proposed that instead of having the pipeline end in Karachi as initially proposed, the pipeline would continue into India.

A Compromise for Prosperity

Since India and Pakistan’s strained relationship was well known, this proposal becoming reality would take a lot of compromise and negotiation.  Triple Diamond Energy Corp. and others in the oil industry realized that a compromise was possible between Indian and Pakistan because they both wanted to achieve economic growth.  Both countries understood that a natural gas pipeline could create great opportunities for both companies. 

The final agreement led to the proposed pipeline being nicknamed the “Peace Pipeline” because of the large political compromises that had to be made in order to begin construction.  Unfortunately the joy over the new pipeline was not universal.  The contract that ended political strain between India and Pakistan threatened to cause political and diplomatic strain between India and the United States. 

The government of the United States has officially objected to any agreements made between any allies and Iran.  At this time the construction of the “Peace Pipeline” has still not occurred and the three countries are trying to reach a diplomatic agreement that would be beneficial to all parties.  When the time for construction begins, companies in Iran that are similar to British Petroleum and Triple Diamond Energy Corp. will be ready to begin the historically and economically significant work.