NEW DELHI: From being considered a $10-billion pipedream for decades, the idea of piping gas from Turkmenistan to India through rebel-infested areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan is inching towards reality, notwithstanding the complexities of relations among the three South Asian neighbours.
PM Narendra Modi’s visit to Turkmenistan in July and India last week agreeing to joint ownership has lent a new impetus to the project. Representatives of national gas companies from the four countries are scheduled to discuss the shareholding pattern of a consortium they plan to form for laying and operating the 1,800-km pipeline.
The talks are scheduled for August 18 and 19 in Dubai and follow Turkmenistan’s assurance to lead the consortium with at least 51% stake. Oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan also expects a substantial Japanese involvement in the project, based on his discussions during last week’s steering committee meeting at Turkman capital Ashgabat.
“We are the buyers. Turkmenistan is the seller. So if the seller is taking leadership role in the consortium, it is a big assurance for (the success of) the project. They (Turkmenistan) are also discussing co-operation in the oil and gas sector with Japan. So Japanese involvement (in TAPI) is also expected. All this will only strengthen the project,” Pradhan said on Monday.
Pradhan was last week in Ashgabat for the project’s 22nd steering committee meeting. At that meeting, oil ministers from the four countries decided to form the consortium after efforts to rope in a global major as consortium leader failed.
Global energy majors such as Total of France, which came forward initially with the condition that it be given stake in the gas field. But after Turkmenistan said its law did not allow giving stake in oil and gas fields to foreign firms, it backed out.
On the pipeline’s safety in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Pradhan said international processes would be followed. GAIL will represent India in the consortium. The Turkman leadership is eager to hold the ground-breaking ceremony in December but Pradhan remained non-committal.
Since the four state-owned firms, including GAIL of India, neither have the financial muscle nor the experience of a cross-country line, an international company is needed to build and operate it in hostile territories of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The TAPI pipeline will have a capacity to carry 90 million standard cubic metres a day (mmscmd) gas for a 30-year period and will be operational in 2018. India and Pakistan would get 38 mmscmd each, while the remaining 14 mmscmd will be supplied to Afghanistan.
TAPI will carry gas from Turkmenistan’s Galkynysh field, better known by its previous name South Yoiotan Osman that holds gas reserves of 16 trillion cubic feet.
From the field, the pipeline will run to Herat and Kandahar province of Afghanistan, before entering Pakistan. In Pakistan, it will reach Multan via Quetta before ending at Fazilka (Punjab) in India.