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Bangladesh will move to be connected with a regional gas pipeline to be jointly built by Pakistan, India and Afghanistan for importing huge quantities of gas from Turkmenistan in Central Asia. After attending a two-day meeting of the SAARC Energy Group on Oil and Gas, Bangladeshi officials gave this indication. Following the meeting at the Ruposhi Bangla hotel, Energy Secretary Mesbah Uddin, who briefed reporters about outcomes of the meeting today ( Tuesday), said Bangladesh wants to be connected with the proposed gas pipeline under the regional cooperation. Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation ( BPC) Chairman Muktadir Ali, SAARC Energy Centre Director Hilal A Raja and officials from different SAARC countries were present at the briefing. Mesbah said the meeting, attended by energy experts and senior officials from the SAARC member countries, finalized a draft terms of reference (TOR) and also a work-plan for the regional energy sectors development over the next few years. He said one of the important aspects of the TOR is importing gas from outside of SAARC and developing a common SAARC Gas Grid. He said the draft TOR will be placed at the SAARC energy ministers meeting scheduled for September in Dhaka. However, before that, a Working Group will meet in August in Islamabad to discuss the draft TOR. The Energy Secretary said the Expert Groups meeting is a follow-up of the SAARC energy ministers third meeting in Thimpu in 2009 which approved a concept note on Energy Ring in SAARC Countries. Later, the SAARC leaders in their Summit in Thimpu in 2010 recognised a need to enhance cooperation in the energy sector to facilitate energy trade, and development of efficient conventional and renewable energy sources including hydropower. Director of the Islamabad-based SAARC Energy Centre Hilal A Raja said the three South Asian neighbours-India, Pakistan and Afghanistan signed an initial agreement in December last year to jointly build a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to India to import bulk gas. They are supposed to ink a final deal on the issue by July 30 this year, in which Turkmenistan proposed to sell gas from a 500 TCF reserve. Turkmenistan has the worlds third largest gas reserves, which its neighbours are trying to utilise to meet their energy needs. As per the contract, Pakistan and India each will import 1.3 billion cubic feet ( BCF) gas per day while Afghanistan will import 0.5 BCF gas. Now, Bangladesh will try to be connected with the gas pipeline to benefit from the huge energy project, Ilal said. According to the meeting outcome, the SAARC countries will study the possibility of setting up a regional or sub-regional LNG (liquefied natural gas) terminal, an oil refinery, construction of an oil pipeline for SAARCs landlocked countries, developing a pricing mechanism for petroleum products, developing institutional mechanism for human resource development and sharing operational and technical experience on LNG terminal.
