Indus Priest King
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TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) pipeline is not in our interest. Besides the obvious political pressuring from the west, let's look at this rationally and economically
The IP pipeline is estimated to cost around $7.5 billion.
The TAPI pipeline is estimated to cost around $7.6 billion.
The IP pipeline source is the South Pars Gas Fields in Iran, which has a significant reserve that will last well into the next century.
The TAPI pipeline source is from the Daulatabad Gas Field in Turkmenistan. There are doubts about Daulatabad's reserves as the data regarding Turkmenistan's energy resources now suggests reserves are much lower than first estimated in the 1990s.
And let's look at the political ramifications of this. Afghanistan, a country teetering on another civil war, is not the ideal place to lay a pipeline.
At the end of the day, TAPI is being forced through instead of IPI because of a US goal/objective to isolate and strangle Iran economically and that's why they pushed India to back out of the Iran-Pakistan pipeline. The 2006 U.S.-India nuclear agreement essentially forces India to cooperate with American foreign policy goals, and bolstering the Iranian economy through oil imports is hardly on Washington's to-do list.
Pakistan must look at its own interests. We must continue to build Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline on priority basis. The Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan pipeline can also be built in parallel but it is not an alternative to Iran-Pakistan pipeline.
Also, here are some questions worth asking
1. What company is building TAPI?
2. The Taliban government pulled out TAPI around the sametime is began destroying the Poppy crops in 2000. So why did the US actually invade Afghanistan in 2001?
The IP pipeline is estimated to cost around $7.5 billion.
The TAPI pipeline is estimated to cost around $7.6 billion.
The IP pipeline source is the South Pars Gas Fields in Iran, which has a significant reserve that will last well into the next century.
The TAPI pipeline source is from the Daulatabad Gas Field in Turkmenistan. There are doubts about Daulatabad's reserves as the data regarding Turkmenistan's energy resources now suggests reserves are much lower than first estimated in the 1990s.
And let's look at the political ramifications of this. Afghanistan, a country teetering on another civil war, is not the ideal place to lay a pipeline.
At the end of the day, TAPI is being forced through instead of IPI because of a US goal/objective to isolate and strangle Iran economically and that's why they pushed India to back out of the Iran-Pakistan pipeline. The 2006 U.S.-India nuclear agreement essentially forces India to cooperate with American foreign policy goals, and bolstering the Iranian economy through oil imports is hardly on Washington's to-do list.
Pakistan must look at its own interests. We must continue to build Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline on priority basis. The Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan pipeline can also be built in parallel but it is not an alternative to Iran-Pakistan pipeline.
Also, here are some questions worth asking
1. What company is building TAPI?
2. The Taliban government pulled out TAPI around the sametime is began destroying the Poppy crops in 2000. So why did the US actually invade Afghanistan in 2001?
