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Why Water Is More Important To Iran's Future Than Oil

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Submitted by Colin Chilcoat via OilPrice.com,

As Congress prepares to vote on the Iran nuclear deal, the focus remains on what separates the Islamic republic from the United States, which, depending on your worldview is either a lot, or everything.

The truth is that similarities, though perhaps few in number, do exist. Similar though contrasting religious convictions, a penchant for exceptionalism, and pistachios aside, water management stands to be a defining issue for both nations – and, truthfully, the world – as we approach mid-century.

Water management in the United States is a historically dense – and increasingly dry – topic. In the early twentieth century, thousands of ill-conceived and wanton public works projects reclaimed vast swathes of the arid deserts dotting the west. The mega metropolises and industrial-scale agribusinesses that the Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation wrought are the definition of Manifest Destiny, and at the very least unsustainable. That fact – largely understood, though often ignored, then – is writ large today.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, every county in California is currently facing severe drought, if not extreme or exceptional. Two of the most stricken areas, California’s San Joaquin Valley and Central Coast District, represent approximately 50 percent of total U.S. fruit and tree nut farm value, and 38 percent of vegetable farm value. Agricultural acreage in the state unsurprisingly fell some 11 percent in 2014 and economic losses of roughly $3 billion are expected this year. It’s not an isolated issue either – more than 43 percent of the U.S. is currently experiencing drought conditions of some kind.

Though understated, the drought’s effects on a national, fossil fuel-heavy and water-cooled energy economy that annually consumes 17 trillion gallons of water are no less damaging. A recent study out of Arizona State University suggests that 46 percent (92 GW) of the electric generating capacity in the Western U.S. is critically vulnerable to climate change.

More specifically, climate change may reduce summertime generating capacity in the Western Electricity Coordinating Council power service region – a 14-state bloc – by up to three percent toward 2060, and up to 8.8 percent under a ten-year drought. Projections of both more intense and lengthier droughts as well as increased water consumption in the energy sector only raise the cause for concern.

It’s no surprise then that non-hydro renewables growth is soaring – especially in drought-hardened states like California and Texas, which continue to set generation and capacity records nationwide. President Obama’s Clean Power Plan (CPP) also looks to attack the problem nationally, by disincentivizing water-thirsty coal generation and expediting the renewable transition. In Texas, CPP looks to reduce water consumption by up to 20 percent by 2029. However, at least 15 states are prepared to fight the climate legislation and some research suggests a more gradual implementation will lead to greater water savings.

Iran is working from a considerably weaker – and more arid – position than the United States. Though economic promise is on the horizon, the crippling effects of international sanctions still handicap the water-poor nation of 78 million. What’s worse, the current drought, which stretches back more than two decades, shows no signs of letting up. The World Resources Institute projects a 20 percent decrease in water supply across much of Iran toward 2040. Conversely, it sees demand rising by as much as 70 percent in that time.

The future demand profile – still mostly agricultural with a controversial sprinkle of nuclear power generation – is of little consequence if the nation can’t source water. With reservoirs at 40 percent and several rivers running dry, Iran will have to get creative. In that regard, and with the pending normalization of international business relations, the water sector represents a prime growth engine for both Iran and outside investors.

Few concrete deals of any kind have emerged as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action finds its footing, but wastewater and sewage treatment, pipeline construction, irrigation, desalinization, bottled water, and general efficiency are all spheres to watch as Iran makes its grand reentrance. Because it’s the water that will determine Iran’s future, and not it’s oil and gas (or nuclear).

 

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Mon, 08/24/2015 - 13:49 | 6464299 Tsar Pointless
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When you think you'll need oil and lead, you'll need water more. - Tsar Pointless

Mon, 08/24/2015 - 13:53 | 6464325 DaVinci
DaVinci's picture

True. But IsraHell wants the oil. That's why they want to crush the Ayatollahs so they can take over >> http://wp.me/p4OZ4v-F4

 

Mon, 08/24/2015 - 14:11 | 6464402 greyghost
greyghost's picture

QUESTION: are the tyler's paying this idiot to write this crap. so now "crude idiots".com can't get the "OIL" story correct and have now moved on to "WATER"???????? tylers what info have you not printed relating to financial matters on a day the dow round trips for 2,000 points. this crap from these clowns.....well this story is good until 2050 [that's mid century] or thirty five years from now. are they posting this nonsense for humor

Mon, 08/24/2015 - 14:24 | 6464471 Pinto Currency
Pinto Currency's picture

 

 

Persians have known about primary water for millenia:

http://www.primarywaterinstitute.org/

Mon, 08/24/2015 - 14:54 | 6464675 TBT or not TBT
TBT or not TBT's picture

Air is actually a more urgent need than water. Yeah it's a bit pedantic to say so, but there it is. Cut off the Persians air and they all be unrecoverably brain dead in like five minutes from now.

Mon, 08/24/2015 - 15:36 | 6464839 ajax
ajax's picture

 

 

"Persians have known about primary water for millenia:"

Thank you Pinto, damn right. "Mesopotamia" means land between rivers.

Ever hear of The Hanging Gardens of Babylon?

Ever hear of The Marsh Arabs?

http://www.messynessychic.com/2014/11/12/the-floating-basket-homes-of-ir...

http://www.amarfoundation.org/heritage/

https://thekilimdiaries.wordpress.com/tag/rugs/

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/7/13/restoring-iraqs-lostmars...

Water means everything to us all. ALL OF US.


 

Mon, 08/24/2015 - 14:23 | 6464472 THE 4th Quadrant
THE 4th Quadrant's picture

Easy kemosabe. Let take some chill time out, ok bro?

Mon, 08/24/2015 - 14:38 | 6464554 greyghost
greyghost's picture

so your defending these asses at crudewater.com. these fools haven't been right about oil for more than a year.......why the fuck should i chill? do you have any connection with the writer or the crudeprice.com clowns....inquiring minds and such

Mon, 08/24/2015 - 16:31 | 6465331 ajax
ajax's picture

 

 

Sorry DaVinci but you're wrong. Israel needs water, lots and lots of water, and will do anything to get it. Anything.

 

 

Mon, 08/24/2015 - 13:54 | 6464331 OldPhart
OldPhart's picture

We'll just have the FED print some water for us.  Problem solved.

Mon, 08/24/2015 - 15:27 | 6464879 EarthHuman
EarthHuman's picture

Iran needs water because AGW. Duh. Buy carbon credits.

Mon, 08/24/2015 - 13:55 | 6464334 TideFighter
TideFighter's picture

Cause I been on a horse [face] with no name....

Mon, 08/24/2015 - 14:00 | 6464356 MalteseFalcon
MalteseFalcon's picture

Water is "another country's" immediate issue.  When "the other country" has an issue, they like the USA to experience the same problem and like to project their problems on to other countries as well.  It establishes a meme so that when "the other country" "acts" to resolve its issue, everyone is on board to at least a partial degree.

The idea of the country that built the Hoover dam not dealing with water shortages in the west is BS.

Mon, 08/24/2015 - 16:54 | 6465350 ReasonForLife
ReasonForLife's picture

Yup, Water is the second most essential element for life, Air being the first, yet it is highly undervalued, overlooked and underappreciated, and Clean Water is more precious than Gold.  I invested in a high-quality filtration system years ago, and am sitting pretty now, reaping my investments of clean refreshment, while others are lugging bottles around. :)  Here's what I own: http://www.pureeffectfilters.com/filter-units/pure-effect-ultra-uc.html  I'm not giving any water investment advice, but I drink it every day.  ;)

Mon, 08/24/2015 - 13:51 | 6464313 Rehab Willie
Rehab Willie's picture

Canada has lots of fresh water, let's regime change them next

Mon, 08/24/2015 - 13:58 | 6464315 JustObserving
JustObserving's picture

Water is the new oil.  More wars will be fought over water than oil in the next decade or two.

Risk of water wars rises with scarcity


Almost half of humanity will face water scarcity by 2030 and strategists from Israel to Central Asia prepare for strife.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2011/06/2011622193147231653.ht...

 

Mon, 08/24/2015 - 14:07 | 6464387 MalteseFalcon
MalteseFalcon's picture

World population will crest by 2050, if not sooner.  The window for general water scarcity will be brief, if it even occurs at all.

There will be pockets of water scarcity.  Those countries will have to trade for water or curtail their populations.

Mon, 08/24/2015 - 15:28 | 6464887 EarthHuman
EarthHuman's picture

Because global warming. Sheeple

Mon, 08/24/2015 - 14:02 | 6464345 THE 4th Quadrant
THE 4th Quadrant's picture

I believe that the USSA gov has in safe keeping a few working free energy devices that have been adapted to monetize the output. When the time is right these devices will be licensed to the friendly energy producers around the world so that the paradigm of an energy based economy is not disturbed. Or the USSA could use Teslas earth resonance theory to deliver the output to predefined drops.

Water also. When zero-point energy is licensed to the producers they will be instructed to use a certain percentage of the output to extract pure water from the atmosphere. Solving both problems.

Our future is bright!

Mon, 08/24/2015 - 14:40 | 6464575 greyghost
greyghost's picture

REALLY?

Mon, 08/24/2015 - 13:59 | 6464349 Hugh G. Rection
Hugh G. Rection's picture

I've been watching the way this Obama works since he has been in office; and it seems like the only reason this nuclear deal is being pushed so hard is that the Iranians are going to pay him to get it done. 10%, 5%, of the 100 billion being unfrozen? In an unmarked Vatican account?

Mon, 08/24/2015 - 14:02 | 6464362 Fox-Scully
Fox-Scully's picture

Not a problem--3-D technology will make water for us.

Mon, 08/24/2015 - 14:05 | 6464368 loregnum
loregnum's picture

Didn't read this but did he go on about global warming? Hope so. That's the nugget to always bring up. It's like the equivalent of bringing up 9/11 when looking to excuse shit you shouldn't be doing.

Global warmiiiiiiiiiiiiing. Religion for the supposed science minded folk.

Mon, 08/24/2015 - 16:25 | 6465292 AchtungAffen
AchtungAffen's picture

Sho is man, dah unly saiens I needs s in dah bybul yo

Mon, 08/24/2015 - 14:08 | 6464388 Dr. Engali
Dr. Engali's picture

What? The central bankers can't print water yet? Why not? The "money" they print is imaginary.

Mon, 08/24/2015 - 14:21 | 6464463 I Write Code
I Write Code's picture

If they desalinate the Persian Gulf then the tankers can't sail there.

Mon, 08/24/2015 - 15:02 | 6464720 IndianaJohn
IndianaJohn's picture

Best dummy joke of the past 7 days.

Mon, 08/24/2015 - 14:26 | 6464490 kchrisc
kchrisc's picture

Just another "rah rah" propaganda article for the "Climate Change" hoax and plunder scheme.

Just a little math to compute up the volume of the earth's atmosphere to about 12 miles, 99% of volume, apply the CO2 percentage (.035%) and then take in account that mankind only burns 4 to 5 cubic miles of "fossil" fuels a year will reveal the nonsense of it all.

That slithers and Zion are pushing it should also be of great value in equating "Climate Change" with nonsense and plunder.

Zion is a scheme, not an ethnicity.

 

Don't believe the hype, it's Zionist tripe.

 

Mon, 08/24/2015 - 16:26 | 6465302 AchtungAffen
AchtungAffen's picture

Not like deforestation, industrial agriculture and construction have ANYTHING to do with CO2.

Mon, 08/24/2015 - 22:11 | 6466894 TrulyStupid
TrulyStupid's picture

You mean there is no California drought or Lake Mead regression... Thank god.. you anti climate change guys are really on to something.

Mon, 08/24/2015 - 14:35 | 6464528 SSRI Junkie
SSRI Junkie's picture

iran is building nuclear powered desalination plants, no problemo

Mon, 08/24/2015 - 14:45 | 6464609 Jack Burton
Jack Burton's picture

I believe you are right! Russia has contracts to build reactors for Iran, I suspect a desalination plant should lie right next to each one!

Mon, 08/24/2015 - 14:49 | 6464636 SSRI Junkie
SSRI Junkie's picture

no shit? so much for what i thought was sarcasm

Mon, 08/24/2015 - 14:44 | 6464601 Jack Burton
Jack Burton's picture

Water riches reside in the temperate zones. Canada and Russia are filthy rich when it come to water. Sibera's massive rivers are legendary for their size and number.

Mankind has livied in arid regions for ever, but never as modern industrial mega states like now. The ware is running low for misplaced nations like Iran. Same for California.

I believe a future investment would and should be building mega iol tanker size ships to haul fresh clean water, drinkable water. Like what can be had from great river systems. A little capital investment up front, how much would Iran pay for a mega tanker of drinkable water?

Years back, someone tried this on the Great Lakes, along which I live. A smaller size tanker entered the Sea Way, and one inside the Great Lakes, tried to pump abord a full load and leave. Once this news hit government's like Canada, and US states along the Great Lakes, the operation was killed! Dead!

I think the next decade should bring water tankers into focus as a mega business. Water from clean rivers like flow in the Northern nations, Norway, Iceland, Siberia, Canada. I'de love a piece of that future action!  A barrel of drinkable water is worth way more than any oil!

Mon, 08/24/2015 - 15:00 | 6464705 quasi_verbatim
quasi_verbatim's picture

Here is UK's Fallon in Iran last Monday:

But what I’ve seen a perfectly normal, bustling, dynamic, entrepreneurial, thrusting, middle-income developing world city that has clearly enormous potential; not a regimented, disciplined society under the thumb of the authority,” he said.

Iran and Turkey are the most populous (Islamic) countries in the region with about 80 million each. Iran has the oil and Turkey has the water so if they ever reach out to one another across Syria then the New NeoCon Middle East is toast.

 

Mon, 08/24/2015 - 15:10 | 6464764 IndianaJohn
IndianaJohn's picture

The US has been in training for a couple of decades to buy a sip retail when a sip of water is wanted. So my thirstys, I own Lake Michigan. If you are thirsty, bring a full nickel and your empty cup.

 

Mon, 08/24/2015 - 15:38 | 6464892 falak pema
falak pema's picture

The sea of Aral; a reminder of what awaits ; like lake Chad in Africa. I have been to both and their legacy in the face of mindless neo-colonialism by the rich is something awesome.

Oil is the key commodity for Rockafella's age like coal was for that of Rule Britannia.

But water remains man's greatest sustenance and its ringfencing and sale by the Oligarchs, like Nestle and Danone, rests the greatest threat to humanity. If they control water and their MIC counterparts control arms and oil, you are checkmated by the 1%.

More than fiat, the real economy of power constructs runs humanity. Fiat is just the skin that covers the machine of human desires. The blood and guts of the vital functions are controlled by the Oligarchs : food, shelter and water and money ( the last is blood of uber economy) that irrigates all society in their name. But its just the skin of human society who can live without accumulating money. Two worlds live side by side. Water and sunlight are the soul of organic survival.

When Frederick II created the first written constitution of medieval world, since Augustus's decrees as Primus inter Pares of ancient Roman Oligarchy, he called it Liber Augustalis in honour of Augustus.

Twelve hundred years after Rome his Constitution promoted free enterprise in all domains except for three domains : grain, iron ore and silk were monopoly domains of the state; all others were open to civil society. For obvious reasons the monopoly domains allowed Frederick to control food, arms and the sublime symbol of uber society. Not bad for 1230.

We aren't even close to that split between the private and public sector.

What spoiled it for Frederick was the undying enmity of Pope for his anticlerical costruct. He paid a heavy price for that oposition to dogma. He lost in civil war.

Obama isn't even close to opposing the Pope (oligarchy markets) nor to defining the line that allows the world to breathe freely and ensure the state rule fairly with civil society's innovation outside monopoly constructs.

We are deep into regression as its all centrally controlled; although a democratic skin still exists full of puss.

We never learn from history. That is the unkindest cut as all those who died for progress have thus been forgotten, even debased, like debris of a past age.

 

Mon, 08/24/2015 - 16:47 | 6465430 ajax
ajax's picture

 

 

"Obama isn't even close to opposing the Pope (oligarchy markets) nor to defining the line that allows the world to breathe freely and ensure the state rule fairly with civil society's innovation outside monopoly constructs."

WHAT??? Who is Obama against the Robber Barons?

What 'woo-woo' land do you live in??!!

Mon, 08/24/2015 - 17:08 | 6465549 falak pema
falak pema's picture

he should be if he were a good king; thats my point; we've regressed, our kings are psychopaths.

Mon, 08/24/2015 - 16:28 | 6465268 ajax
ajax's picture

 

 

So picnic on crap strewn beach with the 'music' of hundreds of ATV 4 wheelers in the background while your children play in the plastic clogged waves of a dying ocean. Eat your gold and oil sandwiches while discussing what life on Mars will be like and whether or not your overweight pet dogs would like it there.

 

Mon, 08/24/2015 - 17:24 | 6465615 mijev
mijev's picture

Gas is cheaper than bottled water. We have a glut of idle supertankers. Fill some of those suckers up with fresh water in one part of the world and ship them to a place that is drying up.

Mon, 08/24/2015 - 17:49 | 6465709 BiggestLoser
BiggestLoser's picture

The Liquid Floride Thorium Reactor produces and consumes 233 U, contaminated with hard gamma emmitter 232 U. No good for weapons. Liquid fuel salt is hot enough for process heat and desalinate seawater with waste heat. ORNL ran a molten salt fueled reactor for four years completing in 1969. Research was stopped. Now China has obtained public domain documents from ORNL and will have a prototype in . . . sooner than U.S.

Wed, 08/26/2015 - 12:57 | 6473613 SweetDoug
SweetDoug's picture

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Watch anything on Thorium on YouTube. Kirk Sorensen is the man you want to watch.

Watch this: (11 Minutes. Just do it. It'll change your view on energy and Thorium.)

Car Runs For 100 Years Without Refueling - The Thorium https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6wQP2qaaEk

(2 Hours and well worth it)  -  Cheap,abundant & very safe nuclear power.....Thorium    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLk46BZfEMs

or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9M__yYbsZ4

# Uranium-Fueled Light-Water Reactor
--------------------------------------------------
# Fuel Uranium fuel rods
# Fuel input per gigawatt output 250 tons raw uranium
# Annual fuel cost for 1-GW reactor $50-60 million
# Coolant Water
# Proliferation potential Medium
# Footprint 200,000-300,000 square feet, surrounded by a low-density population zone
# Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor
-----------------------------------------------
# Fuel Thorium and uranium fluoride solution
# Fuel input per gigawatt output 1 ton raw thorium
# Annual fuel cost for 1-GW reactor $10,000 (estimated)
# Coolant Self-regulating
# Proliferation potential None
# Footprint 2,000-3,000 square feet, with no need for a buffer zone
# Spent Uranium can be re-burned and rendered inert in a Thorium reactor.

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Wed, 08/26/2015 - 13:30 | 6473607 SweetDoug
SweetDoug's picture

'

'

'

Let them drink camel piss.

 

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