India and Pakistan Wednesday signed agreements with Turkmenistan for a project to pipe natural gas from the central Asian country through Afghanistan, marking a major milestone in regional relations.
India
and
Pakistan
Wednesday signed agreements with
Turkmenistan
for a
project to pipe natural gas from the central Asian country through
Afghanistan
,
marking a major milestone in regional relations.
The signing of the gas sales and purchase agreements by state-run GAIL (India)
Ltd. (532155.BY) and Pakistan's Inter State Gas System (Pvt) Ltd. in
Turkmenistan comes after nearly two decades of negotiations and backing from
the U.S. to build the pipeline, commonly referred to as the TAPI pipeline.
Under the agreement, up to 90 million cubic meters a day of natural gas will be
transported through the pipeline from the massive Galkynysh field in
Turkmenistan
, the
world's second-largest gas reserve. It will pass through
Afghanistan
, then
Pakistan
and
end in
India
.
But security concerns in areas through which the pipeline will pass persist,
given that the Taliban controls large areas of southern
Afghanistan
and
parts of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, while a separatist rebellion
continues in
Pakistan
's
southwestern
Baluchistan
province. As a result, the
timeframe for the pipeline's construction is unclear.
Turkmenistan
views
the over 1,100-mile-long pipeline as a way to reduce dependence on
Russia
and
China
as
export markets. The gas will help
India
and
Pakistan
meet
surging domestic demand for energy while also reducing chronic power shortages
in
Afghanistan
.
On Wednesday,
Afghanistan
also
signed an initial pact with
Turkmenistan
on
long-term gas cooperation.
A gas sales and purchase agreement between
Afghanistan
and
Turkmenistan
is
expected to be finalized shortly, according to a statement issued by the Asian
Development Bank. The Manila-based bank is funding a small part of the project
and helped broker the deal.
"The next step is for the four TAPI nations to attract commercial partners
to build, finance and operate the pipeline, estimated in 2008 to cost at least
$7.6 billion," the ADB said.
The project has the backing of the
U.S.
, as
it wants to isolate
Iran
,
which is trying to build its own gas pipeline to
Pakistan
, and
force it to abandon its alleged program to build nuclear weapons.
Terming the signing of the agreements as a "watershed development",
India
's oil
minister, Jaipal Reddy, said the TAPI project will boost industrial and economic
development in the four countries.
"This (pipeline) will...provide socio-political stabilization in this
region," Reddy said at a conference in
Turkmenistan
.
He said
India
's
consumption of natural gas is expected to climb from the current 166.2 million
metric standard cubic meters a day to 473 mmscm/d in 2017, a fact that is
pushing the nation to build more infrastructure for liquefied natural gas and
expand pipeline network.
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