DEC. 12 2010 (The Conway Bulletin) —  It is still a long way off, but Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India took a determined step forward on Dec. 11, 2010 to turning a 15-year-old pipe dream into reality.

The four countries finally signed an accord which binds them to building a 1,700km gas pipeline from the Dauletabad gas field in southeast Turkmenistan across Afghanistan and Pakistan to Fazilka, an Indian border town. It has been talked about since 1995 but war in Afghanistan and a lack of political will delayed the project.

Now, they want the so-called TAPI pipeline operating by 2014 even though the route goes through Taliban controlled parts of Afghanistan. Estimates put the cost of the pipeline, which will have a capacity of 33b cubic metres a year, at between $3.3b and $7.5b.

For the US, the pipeline is important because it acts as an alternative to a proposed pipeline running to Pakistan and India from Iran.

TAPI has gained momentum, largely because India has pushed to increase its energy import options and because of a leadership change in Turkmenistan. Turkmenistan’s leader Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, president since Dec. 21 2006, has been eagerly courting Western, Chinese and Iranian investors since an argument over gas prices with Russia in 2009.

Turkmenistan, which holds the world’s fourth largest gas reserves, has a growing list of clients and an expanding web of pipelines feeding these customers directly with its gas. If TAPI goes to plan, Turkmenistan is set to become an important energy supplier to South Asia.

ENDS

Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 19, published on Dec. 13 2010)