Iran - Tashkuh, the burning mountain and all that gas

Tashkuh, the burning mountain

"They have so much gas here that even mountains burn," we think. Yes, Iran has a lot of gas, but this particular burning mountain is more of an excursion destination. We drive through a beautiful area, cross worrying bridges, enjoy the greenery that is finally reappearing in nature and reach the burning mountain during the day. Which is, of course, a pretty stupid idea. We look for a shady spot and come back later. In the evening, the place fills up, picnic blankets are spread out and together we wait for darkness.

We are amazed by the beauty of the flames that simply come out of the mountain. The province of Khuzestan is rich in oil and gas deposits, so natural phenomena in which gases escape from the ground and ignite are nothing unusual in such regions. It is actually just a small hill that has been burning continuously for years. The constant inferno is caused by the ignition of the escaping pyrophoric gases, which burn in the air.

As we stand there marvelling, we are invited several times: here a lawyer (important, mind you!), there a minister (equally important). We are to have dinner with them. And what about us? Actually, we want to enjoy nature in peace and quiet, somehow we feel like being alone. Of course this is respected, of course we drink another cup of tea and eat dates together. And then we have to promise not to sleep here under any circumstances. It would be dangerous, the fumes would make us sleepy and then we could fall asleep in our camper van. Well, we half-heartedly promise not to sleep here. And we don't mention that we've installed a gas detector in our Felix that is so sensitive that it sounds the alarm when you cook sauerkraut or fart. The latter is really funny and unfortunately also annoying!

But in the end, everything turns out differently than expected. But more on that tomorrow!

The wealth of the country: Gas

The south of Iran is where the country's wealth lies. Actually, the whole south is somehow a gas production area. Do you say gas extraction? Or overexploitation? Depending on the source, one reads about 3rd place in the world ranking list of gas deposits, sometimes even higher, sometimes a little further down. Wherever Iran appears in this list, it is one of the big players in the gas business.

One thing is clear: we are not allowed to photograph industrial and military facilities. We read and hear it everywhere. Even our friends warn us not to take photos of such facilities with our cameras, mobile phones or laptops. This is because there have always been travellers whose devices have been checked. We have just met a Polish traveller family whose mobile phones were searched for hours for Iranian contacts and photos from forbidden regions. So: We don't take any photos. We even keep deleting our search history. And hope once again that we won't be asked. And here, too, I can say in advance: worry is our constant companion, but we are not really checked once.

However, we drive past the gas stations for hours, so I've included one or two photos from a freely accessible online photo library (Adobe Stock) so you can see what it looks like here.

We also see masses of gas flaring in the mountains. I wonder why this has to happen. Our research reveals nothing but unpleasant things: environmental pollution par excellence. We read: "Flaring does not release unused or unusable gases directly into the environment by blowing them off, but instead reduces the environmental impact compared to combustion. For example, methane is burned to carbon dioxide and water vapour by flaring." (Source: chemistry.com).

But we also read: "Every year, 150 to 170 billion cubic metres of natural gas are flared or simply released into the atmosphere during oil production. This was discovered by the American weather agency NOAA with the help of satellite images. The amount of natural gas is equivalent to the annual consumption of Germany and Italy combined. Market value of the wasted energy: around 40 billion dollars." (Source: Spiegel.de)

"Flaring wastes gas and leads to unnecessary emissions of methane, carbon dioxide and pollutants such as soot particles, which are directly harmful to human health" (source: catf.us)

"In 2021, an estimated 144 billion cubic metres of gas will be released through flaring - enough to meet two thirds of the European Union's electricity needs." (Source: zeit.de)

Brief classification: We do not want to place the sole responsibility on Iran: All countriesthat produce crude oil and natural gas share responsibility with all countriesthat consume oil and natural gas. And the majority of them are probably us, the countries of the global North, the industrialised countries.

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Merci for "travelling with us

We are thinking about taking another break from travelling in the summer and visiting our families in Germany and Switzerland. One of the ideas is to organise a Lecture about our long journey to the Persian Gulf to prepare. If you would like to, what would interest you the most? We will also tell stories here that don't find a place here on the blog. We're thinking of the Bern and Berlin area - simply because we have family there. But other places are also conceivable. Feel free to write to us.

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