Given the array of sweetener deals in the oil and gas sector promised to Russia by Iran in the past year or so – suspended until public outcry over these bargain-basement giveaways has died down – Tehran is now sufficiently confident in its implicit support from Russia that it is going ahead with fully developing a long-disputed area of the massive Caspian Sea oil and gas reservoir: Sardar-e-Jangal. The wider Caspian basins area, including both onshore and offshore fields, is conservatively estimated to have around 48 billion barrels of oil and 292 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of natural gas in proved and probable reserves, on the basis of field-level data. Around 41% of total Caspian crude oil and lease condensate (19.6 billion barrels) and 36% of natural gas (106 Tcf) exists in the offshore fields, according to this data, with an additional 35% of oil (16.6 billion barrels) and […]