From today’s Energy Daily, some further information regarding a $1 billion deal to pipe natural gas to Syria from Iran.  According to the report:

“…Iran plans to export about 100 billion cubic feet of natural gas to Syria every year, according to Iranian state-run media. The deal would require the gas to be transported through Turkey by pipeline, a situation that could hurt U.S. efforts to isolate the energy economy of Iran.

But Iran’s ability to supply Syria with that much natural gas remains unclear. In the winter of 2006, domestic shortages forced Iran to stop major natural gas shipments to Turkey, causing Ankara to turn to Moscow for supplies. Turkey, which faces its own increasing natural gas demand, has shown interest in investing in Iran’s massive South Pars field and has been importing between 100 billion and 150 billion cubic feet of natural gas from Iran since the Iran-Turkey pipeline was built in 2001.

…Iran sits on the world’s second-largest natural gas deposits after Russia, 974 trillion cubic feet, but has the lowest production in the Persian Gulf….”

This announcement is somewhat surprising given the involvement of Turkey but, then again, there are heavy strains on the U.S. – Turkish partnership at present that may make it “convenient” or a useful bargaining chip for the Turks to agree to help transport Iranian gas to Syria.  These tensions include: Turkey’s desire to send troops into northern Iraq to battle the PKK, a Kurdish insurgent group in eastern Turkey with ties to the Kurds in northern Iraq, despite U.S. requests that they stay out of Iraq, as well as, the recent introduction of the Armenian Genocide Resolution, H.R. 116, in the U.S. House of Representatives which would officially refer to the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians in Turkey during World War I as a genocide.