$10 billion Iran-Iraq-Syria Natural Gas Pipeline Construction

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Christian Science Monitor

Energy Voices: Insights on the future of fuel and power
US destroyers near Syria. Oil market likely to shrug off a strike.

Syria is not a huge oil producer and the US increasingly is, sheltering the latter somewhat from turmoil in the former. Although oil prices are rising as US destroyers head for Syria, analysts say prices are unlikely to skyrocket unless the Syrian conflict spreads to Iraq.

By David J. Unger, Correspondent / August 27, 2013

"The US has deployed four US Navy destroyers in the Mediterranean Sea, according to news reports Tuesday, in preparation of a possible attack on Syrian military sites. If American forces strike against Syria in the wake of alleged chemical weapon use by the Bashar al-Assad regime, its impact on energy would probably not be as significant as it would have been 10 or 20 years ago.

That's mostly because Syria's oil output is a fraction of what its neighbors produce. It's also because North America has had its own energy boom, better insulating it from shockwaves abroad.

Still, the threat of conflict spreading across the region has already put upward pressure on prices. And American allies in Europe still rely heavily on Middle East oil and gas, even if US imports are down dramatically since peaking in 2005 ...

US crude rose upwards of $3.00 to $109.32 early Tuesday, matching its high for the year. Prices were already on the rise due to unrest in Egypt, a low-output oil country, but one that controls vital trade routes.

"The business and energy markets don’t like risk," David Biette, an energy analyst at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a Washington-based think tank, in a telephone interview. "They want to know what’s going to happen." ...

It has also delayed construction of a $10 billion Iran-Iraq-Syria natural gas pipeline aimed at transforming Syria into a crucial energy transit hub. The pipeline would bring Iranian gas to European markets, in competition with Qatar's plans for a similar pipeline.

The shifting of the global energy landscape has helped minimize the spikes of unrest in Egypt, Syria, and elsewhere in the region. New drilling techniques have flooded North America with its own supplies of oil and gas, loosening the Middle East's grip on global oil markets ..."

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1. Meanwhile Russia sends in its anti-ship missiles.

Russia has just sent their most advanced anti-ship missiles to Syria in a clear warning that any attack against Syria will not go unanswered.

The New York Times quotes unnamed US officials as saying the missiles could be used to counter any potential future foreign military intervention in Syria.

The P-800 Oniks Russian П-800 Оникс; English Onyx, also known in export markets as Yakhont, English ruby or sapphire, is a Russian/Soviet supersonic anti-ship cruise missile developed by NPO Mashinostroyeniya as a ramjet version of P-80 Zubr. Its GRAU designation is 3M55. Development reportedly started in 1983, and by 2001 allowed the launch of the missile from land, sea, air and submarine. The missile has the NATO reporting codename SS-N-26. It is reportedly a replacement for the P-270 Moskit, but possibly also for the P-700 Granit. The P-800 was reportedly used as the basis for the joint Russian-Indian supersonic missile the BrahMos.

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2. K &R