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Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Pakistan pushes to get Turkmenistan pipeline moving* Petroleum minister says govt following agressive timeframe to conclude agreements on this project as early as possible
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will push hard for quick implementation of a long-delayed trans-regional gas pipeline from Turkmenistan, in a bid to ease its mounting energy crisis, the petroleum minister said on Tuesday.
Senior officials of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India on Monday, inked the framework of an agreement to construct the project with an estimated value of $3.3 billion.
The so-called TAPI (Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India) project would pump natural gas to Pakistan and India through Kandahar.
More energy security could ease pressure on Pakistan’s government, which faces a range of challenges, from a homegrown Taliban insurgency, to what will likely be years of economic pain after summer floods caused billions of dollars in damages. But analysts said the agreement was still at a preliminary stage and that security challenges in Afghanistan and the tensions between India and Pakistan remained an obstacle.
Proposals to build the pipeline have been on the table since the 1990s but war in Afghanistan delayed the project.
“We are following a very, very aggressive timeframe to conclude agreements on this project as early as possible,” Pakistani Petroleum Minister Naveed Qamar said.
“But it’s too early to say when these agreements will be completed and when the project will be implemented. Everything is subject to conclusion of agreements.”
Qamar said a final framework agreement is expected to be signed at a summit of the leaders of the four countries in December.
A pact covering the broad principles of sale and purchase of gas was also signed.
Although some Pakistani energy officials hailed the tentative agreement, analysts say it may just be more wishful thinking.
“It’s an agreement to reach another agreement without any concrete details and until then it cannot be termed as important,” said the Director of Pakistan’s Invest and Finance Securities Ltd Khalid Iqbal Siddiqui “This is not the first time it has happened.”
The planned pipeline would have an initial capacity of 33 billion cubic metres a year and would run for nearly 2,000 km, including 735 km across Afghanistan and another 800 km through Pakistan.
Natural gas to fill the pipeline could be drawn from the massive South Yolotan deposit, currently under development, and the existing Dovletabad field.
Pakistan also hopes a major gas pipeline project from Iran will help it tackle its energy problems.
In March, the two sides signed a deal to build a much-delayed $7.6 billion pipeline pumping Iranian natural gas to Pakistan.
That project may also be fraught with political uncertainties as the United States has been discouraging Pakistan from any deal with Tehran because of its suspected ambitions to build nuclear weapons. reuters
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk