Hopes are riding high again on the TAPI pipeline with officials in the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum saying a technical survey will be completed within a year, and work on extending the pipeline begin.
Hopes are riding high again on the TAPI pipeline with officials in the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum saying a technical survey will be completed within a year, and work on extending the pipeline begin.Natural gas from fields in Turkmenistan will be piped through Afghanistan and Pakistan to India by 2017 if the four countries are able to come to an agreement by the middle of the current year, according to Jalil Jamrani, director of petroleum in the ministry.
“If the agreement takes place by the middle of the year, God willing the pipe line would be extended within three years and the gas would also be supplied to four countries,” said Jamrani.
The project, which had been in the pipeline since the nineties, got a fillip after the presidents of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan and the Indian energy minister signed an agreement in 2010.
The 1,735 km mainly Asian Development Bank funded-pipeline would stretch from Turkmenistan through Torghudi port to Farah, Herat, Helmand, Nimroz and Spin Boldak before entering Pakistan from Quetta and onwards to India.
For Afghanistan TAPI is a big development project with massive benefits to the economy and to security. Annually it could earn roughly 450 million USD on transit fees. Half a million people would get jobs during the construction of the project. And it also opens up the possibility of Afghanistan’s selling gas to its downstream neighbours.
Wahidullah Waisi, director general of economic cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is optimistic the project will keep to its 2017 deadline. “We are in the third of the five phases, and the work is going well,” he said. “I am optimistic because political efforts (to sort out obstacles) are going on with the partner countries,” he added.
TAPI has fallen a year behind its 2010 schedule. The transmission of gas should have started in 2016. When completed Pakistan and India are to get 1.3 billion cubic feet of gas a day (bcfd) and Afghanistan 0.5 bcfd.
Pipeline protection
There is some concern that Afghan security forces who have their hands full in security duties may find it difficult to also secure the pipeline carrying natural gas from terrorist attacks. But the Ministry of Interior Affairs (MoI) has dismissed such concern. The 395,000-strong security forces can “easily” secure the pipeline, MoI spokesperson Sediq Sediqi has repeatedly stated.
“Our police are ready to ensure the security of every big economic project, specifically for TAPI. If the project is implemented we can ensure its security,” he clarified. The Ministry of Mines and Petroleum said the MoI has plans to create a special force of 10,000 men for the purpose.
Sabotage suspicions
While TAPI has the backing of Russia, the US and EU, Afghanistan’s western neighbour Iran has been accused of trying to torpedo the pipeline. Tehran has got Islamabad to agree to a Pipe of Peace – a pipeline to ship natural gas from Iran to Pakistan by January 2015. On Feb 22, 2013, the Pakistani cabinet approved the agreement despite pressure from the US.
According to Amirzada Khusti, a specialist in the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum and a member of the TAPI technical committee, Pakistan, which claims it is happy with TAPI, is in fact upset that it will benefit both its neighbours, Afghanistan and India. “When we asked Pakistan why you are working simultaneously on TAPI and seeking to buy gas from Iran we were told that Pakistan needs more gas,” the official said. This has not allayed fears that Iran is trying to sabotage and delay TAPI.
