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NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD: India has urged Turkmenistan to relax its domestic law so that an international company can be brought in to construct the proposed $10-billion TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) pipeline as finding a credible, independent operator remains a key obstacle.
According to agency reports from Islamabad, India made the suggestion at the steering committee meeting of the project held on Wednesday in the Pakistani capital with the aim of starting work this year.
Oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan is representing India. An oil ministry statement issued in New Delhi quoted Pradhan as reiterating "India's commitment to source natural gas from Turkmenistan through TAPI natural gas pipeline project".
According to agency reports, Pradhan also called on Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif, who conveyed his warm regards to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
This is the first visit to Pakistan by any Indian minister since India called off foreign secretary-level talks in August 2014 after the Pak envoy met Kashmiri separatist leaders ahead of the talks. Pradhan also met minister of mines and petroleum of Afghanistan on the sidelines of the TAPI steering committee meeting.
TAPI project has failed to take off as the four countries have not been able to get an international firm to head a consortium, which would lay and operate the pipeline as relationship between India and Pakistan remains tense and Afghanistan lives under the threat of the Taliban.
French giant Total SA had initially envisaged interest in leading a consortium of national oil companies from the participating countries. But it backed off after Turkmenistan refused to accept its condition of a stake in the gas field that would feed the pipeline.
None of the state-owned firms from the participating countries, including India's gas utility GAIL, have the financial muscle or the experience of building and operating a cross-country pipeline. That is why an international company is needed to build and operate the line.
Sources said Turkmenistan has so far maintained that its law does not provide for giving foreign firms an equity stake in upstream gas field, without which western energy giants will not be interested to take the risk.
On Wednesday's meeting, Pradhan "also articulated the need for the project to be a win-win proposition for all participating countries. The very fact that India has had regular Ministerial representation at the TAPI Steering Committee Meeting, bears testimony to the importance which has been attached by the government to this project despite the apprehensions regarding geo-political situation and security scenario involving the project."
The TAPI pipeline will have a capacity to carry 90 million 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.
He was accompanied by a high-level delegation including Oil Secretary Saurabh Chandra, High Commissioner of India in Islamabad, his ministry's Joint Secretary (International Cooperation), as well as chairmen of state gas utility GAIL India and ONGC Videsh Ltd Managing Director.
Pradhan in Pak to push TAPI pipeline - The Times of India
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About TAPI
Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
According to agency reports from Islamabad, India made the suggestion at the steering committee meeting of the project held on Wednesday in the Pakistani capital with the aim of starting work this year.
Oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan is representing India. An oil ministry statement issued in New Delhi quoted Pradhan as reiterating "India's commitment to source natural gas from Turkmenistan through TAPI natural gas pipeline project".
According to agency reports, Pradhan also called on Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif, who conveyed his warm regards to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
This is the first visit to Pakistan by any Indian minister since India called off foreign secretary-level talks in August 2014 after the Pak envoy met Kashmiri separatist leaders ahead of the talks. Pradhan also met minister of mines and petroleum of Afghanistan on the sidelines of the TAPI steering committee meeting.
TAPI project has failed to take off as the four countries have not been able to get an international firm to head a consortium, which would lay and operate the pipeline as relationship between India and Pakistan remains tense and Afghanistan lives under the threat of the Taliban.
French giant Total SA had initially envisaged interest in leading a consortium of national oil companies from the participating countries. But it backed off after Turkmenistan refused to accept its condition of a stake in the gas field that would feed the pipeline.
None of the state-owned firms from the participating countries, including India's gas utility GAIL, have the financial muscle or the experience of building and operating a cross-country pipeline. That is why an international company is needed to build and operate the line.
Sources said Turkmenistan has so far maintained that its law does not provide for giving foreign firms an equity stake in upstream gas field, without which western energy giants will not be interested to take the risk.
On Wednesday's meeting, Pradhan "also articulated the need for the project to be a win-win proposition for all participating countries. The very fact that India has had regular Ministerial representation at the TAPI Steering Committee Meeting, bears testimony to the importance which has been attached by the government to this project despite the apprehensions regarding geo-political situation and security scenario involving the project."
The TAPI pipeline will have a capacity to carry 90 million 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.
He was accompanied by a high-level delegation including Oil Secretary Saurabh Chandra, High Commissioner of India in Islamabad, his ministry's Joint Secretary (International Cooperation), as well as chairmen of state gas utility GAIL India and ONGC Videsh Ltd Managing Director.
Pradhan in Pak to push TAPI pipeline - The Times of India
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About TAPI
Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
