96: Chapter 96 can provide 50 billion cubic meters of natural gas for lease.

Lieutenant Colonel Haidari did not break his promise and immediately paid 200,000 USD to Colonel Suman.

He still needed Colonel Suman to do his best, so there was no need to haggle over such a small amount of funds.

Lieutenant Colonel Haidari immediately told Major General Zaha this good news.

After seeing the 200,000 USD arrive in his account, Colonel Suman actively negotiated the location and time for the talks with Deputy Commander-in-Chief Mahad.

Soon, the negotiations for the oil leasing cooperation began.

Deputy Commander-in-Chief Mahad had already received authorization from Commander-in-Chief Qasim and could fully represent the Persian Lion State National Guard in launching the oil leasing cooperation with Syria.

He asked right away, "Major General Zaha, there is no problem with Iran providing oil for leasing, but how can you prove that Syria will be able to return the leased oil on time in the future?"

"Syria possesses 2.5 billion barrels of oil reserves, the vast majority of which have not yet been extracted. As long as we regain control of these oil fields, we will soon be able to extract the oil needed to repay Iran."

Major General Zaha had no way to prove they could repay on time, so he could only bring up the oil reserves to make his case.

"But Syria's daily oil production is not high. Even if you retake the oil fields, the annual production will be at most 30 million barrels. With only this much oil, it is impossible to use it all to repay Iran," Deputy Commander-in-Chief Mahad continued to question.

"We can increase oil extraction in the future, raising daily production to 380,000 barrels, or even 500,000 barrels. Then, our annual oil production could reach 150 million barrels. Even if we only use half to repay Iran, we could return 75 million barrels a year."

Major General Zaha was exaggerating wildly; anyway, Syria's previous daily oil production did indeed reach 380,000 barrels, so he didn't mean to lie. It was just that many oil extraction facilities had been destroyed, and it would take a long time to restore such a high daily production rate.

"That is not impossible. However, our oil company must participate in Syria's oil extraction to ensure that Syria's oil can reach production capacity quickly and repay Iran as soon as possible," Deputy Commander-in-Chief Mahad demanded.

"No problem. Syria can establish a new joint venture with Iran's oil company, holding the oil fields used to repay Iran."

Major General Zaha welcomed this; once the joint venture was established, Iran would naturally need to provide various oil extraction equipment, which would also allow the oil fields to start extraction as soon as possible.

"How much oil do you intend to lease?"

"Can we lease 500 million barrels of oil?" Major General Zaha asked cautiously.

"500 million barrels? That is too much. Syria's total oil reserves are only 2.5 billion barrels. Plus, with a maximum annual extraction of only 100 million barrels, the time required for repayment would be too long. No!" Deputy Commander-in-Chief Mahad flatly refused.

"Then what is the maximum amount of oil you can provide for Syria to lease?" Major General Zaha knew the initiative was not in his hands, so he had to ask.

"At most, we will lease 200 million barrels of oil." Deputy Commander-in-Chief Mahad proposed a relatively reasonable figure.

"200 million barrels? Isn't that too little?" Major General Zaha was a bit dissatisfied.

"It is not little," Deputy Commander-in-Chief Mahad said. "200 million barrels of oil are worth over 10 billion USD. You can purchase quite a lot of weapons and equipment with that."

Seeing that Deputy Commander-in-Chief Mahad had no intention of backing down, Major General Zaha had to say, "Fine. We just hope that the oil can be delivered to us as soon as possible so that we can use it to purchase arms."

Deputy Commander-in-Chief Mahad offered a suggestion, saying, "If Syria is willing to lease natural gas, Iran can provide a significant amount of natural gas for Syria to lease."

Upon hearing this, Major General Zaha felt there was a chance; after all, Chaos Company also accepted natural gas as payment. He asked, "We are willing to lease natural gas. I wonder how much we can lease?"

"At least 50 billion cubic meters of natural gas," Deputy Commander-in-Chief Mahad calculated and said.

Currently, Iran's annual natural gas production was only 257 billion cubic meters. After deducting domestic consumption, the remaining natural gas was approximately 15 billion cubic meters. If production was increased, they could provide 50 billion cubic meters of natural gas for lease to Syria within three years at most.

Major General Zaha was very happy to hear there was 50 billion cubic meters of natural gas and said, "That works. We will lease 50 billion cubic meters of natural gas."

He did not try to negotiate for more natural gas; after all, Syria's natural gas reserves were only 650 billion cubic meters, and being able to lease 50 billion cubic meters was quite a lot.

"Then we have settled it. Iran will lease 200 million barrels of oil and 50 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Syria," Deputy Commander-in-Chief Mahad concluded.

"We will lease this much. I wonder how many years Iran plans to spread the lease over for us?" Major General Zaha asked.

"Let's spread it over three years. The first year, we will lease 50 million barrels of oil and 15 billion cubic meters of natural gas; the second year, 100 million barrels of oil and 20 billion cubic meters of natural gas; the third year, 50 million barrels of oil and 15 billion cubic meters of natural gas."

Deputy Commander-in-Chief Mahad provided the annual leasing amounts based on Iran's oil and natural gas production.

After hearing this, Major General Zaha roughly estimated the value of the oil and natural gas leased in the first year, based on the prices from the previous transaction with Chaos Company.

Calculating oil at 48 USD per barrel, the value was 2.4 billion USD. Calculating natural gas at 431.5 USD per thousand cubic meters, the value was 6.5 billion USD. Deducting the possibility of a price drop in oil and natural gas, in the first year, they could use at least over 8 billion USD to purchase Tianlei Series Anti-Aircraft Missile.

This purchase amount was more than enough for Syria. After all, the number of Tianlei Series Anti-Aircraft Missile consumed in a year would not be particularly high. Unless a large-scale battle with the USA broke out immediately, they would not need to consume more anti-aircraft missiles.

Major General Zaha quickly said, "No problem. We agree to lease according to this annual distribution."

"Then how do you intend to return the leased oil and natural gas?" Deputy Commander-in-Chief Mahad asked.

Major General Zaha made a rough calculation. Even if Syria's oil reached full production, most of it would need to be exported to earn foreign exchange to purchase products needed domestically. At most, they could only spare 20 million barrels a year for repayment, which would take 10 years to repay.

The maximum annual production of natural gas had once been 8 billion cubic meters. Even if production was increased, it would not exceed 12 billion cubic meters, but most would need to be used for domestic consumption. It would be remarkable to be able to spare 4 billion cubic meters per year for repayment.

Major General Zaha quickly gave his reply, saying, "After Syria regains the oil and gas fields, we will strive to restore full extraction and production within two years. Afterwards, we will repay Iran's oil and natural gas over 12 years. For the first 10 years, we will return 20 million barrels of oil and 4 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually, and for the last two years, we will return 5 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually."