Just a heads up, the TAPI pipeline was in negotiations with the Taliban when Unocal flew them into texas in the late 90s. The future Afghan president, chosen by the US, Hamid Karzai, was a consultant for Unocal as well as the future ambassador to Afghanistan was a Unocal consultant. Chevron, Condoleeza Rices former company, ended up buying out Unocal as the Afghan war commenced. The Taliban were refusing the pipeline in the late 90s, so they got booted out after 9/11. And the resulting geopolitical game of TAPI vs. IPI pipelines began, with the War on Terror firmly planted as the US excuse for energy dominance in Eurasia. This is the reality of the wars. That had to be prefaced before understanding the content below: November, 2014: Iran has energy. Its neighbour Pakistan wants energy. Their efforts to work out a deal have for years been stymied by foreign powers, but now they are trying a new approach. Last month, Pakistan proposed an alternative gas import plan from Iran amid the lingering threat of sanctions from the United States against the $7.5 billion Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline project. [...] Under the new plan, Iran would convert natural gas into LNG then export it to Pakistan by using the terminal facility of Oman, which has already signed a deal with Iran for the purchase of about $60bn worth of natural gas over the next 25 years. An LNG terminal has also been proposed to be set up at Gwadar port in south-western Balochistan province bordering Iran, and an LNG pipeline from Gwadar would be laid to Nawabshah town in southern Sindh province. The Gwadar-Nawabshah pipeline would also be extended by 71 kilometres towards the Iranian border for transportation of gas under the IP pipeline project, provided the US sanctions against Iran are lifted. [...] Formal inauguration of the IP pipeline project by Islamabad and Tehran last year raised eyebrows in Washington and the US state department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters at the time: “We have also been working on alternative projects. We’ve heard this pipeline announced 10 to 15 times before. If this [IP pipeline] project goes forward we have serious concerns that sanctions will be triggered.” The alternative project that the US favours for Pakistan is the proposed Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (Tapi) gas pipeline. Although Islamabad believes that the alternative LNG pipeline is a separate project having no links with the IP pipeline, the US wants Pakistan to abandon the IP project and go ahead with the Tapi pipeline. The IP pipeline is strongly opposed by the US, while it is supported by Russia and China. Similarly, the US-backed Tapi pipeline is opposed by Russia. India had to withdraw from the Iran pipeline project in 2009 under US pressure. The international financial institutions have been reluctant to sanction funds for Pakistan for the IP project because of sanctions on Iran. The US did not exempt the IP project from the sanctions despite Iran’s nuclear deal with western nations in Geneva last year. What seems behind the virtual demise of the strategic IP pipeline? It was geopolitics and corporate interests that ultimately halted this project. Turkmenistan’s Daulatabad fields are estimated to have gas reserves of 159 trillion cubic feet. The US energy giant Unocal has been active to lead efforts to corner the Caspian wealth through a safer and shorter route from Central Asia to the world markets. Hence, the US always supported the Tapi pipeline traversing Afghan territory. But the volatile security situation in war-torn Afghanistan has so far ensured the failure of the project. On the other hand, Russia opposed the construction of the Tapi pipeline because it wants Turkmenistan’s gas to be firmly under its control. Turkmenistan currently ships the bulk of its gas exports to Ukraine via a pipeline controlled by the Russian gas giant Gazprom. Moscow, however, fully backed the construction of the IP pipeline to meet the energy needs of south and west Asia.
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 23:30:03 +0000
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