First proposed by Iran in 1994, the IPI has been bedeviled by delays, US opposition and most recently because of disagreements between India and Pakistan over transit fees and security concerns.However, after long and unfruitful years, many of the differences between Pakistan and India over the IPI pipeline project were resolved last week and the two countries have agreed to start work on laying pipelines next year for procuring gas from Iran by December 2012. Talks between the two countries to resolve the differences, mainly relating to transit fees and transportation tariff, failed last June, putting the so-called "peace pipeline" project into cold storage. However, the current rising energy prices eventually forced them back to the table. Even so, this wasn't the only factor which made India join the talks. In fact Chinese interest in joining the IPI, virtually replacing India, made all the difference. Consequently, fearing it will be left out, India had to give ground and resume the talks.
Work on the approximately 2,775-kilometer pipeline will begin in 2009 and will be completed by December 2012. It is expected to supply 60 million cubic meters a day from Iran's South Pars field to be shared equally by Pakistan and India. The route of the pipeline has been altered at the insistence of India for security reasons. It will enter Pakistan near Gwadar and move along the highway to join the transmission system near Nawabshah.
Following this breakthrough visa a via the IPI, the other project, TAPI, has also been brought to center stage by Turkmen President Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov, who visited Kabul last week to promote it in the face of the move to push ahead with the IPI by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was in Islamabad the same day. In fact, the Turkmen leaders visit was made just days after representatives from Turkmenistan, Pakistan and India signed an agreement to start construction of TAPI in 2010.
The original TAPI project started in 1995, when an inaugural memorandum of understanding between Turkmenistan and Pakistan for a pipeline project was signed. In 1996 the Central Asia Gas Pipeline, Ltd. (CentGas) consortium for construction of a pipeline, led by American company Unocal was formed. On Oct. 27, 1997, CentGas was incorporated in formal signing ceremonies in Ashgabat, by several international energy companies along with the government of Turkmenistan. In January 1998, the Taliban, selecting CentGas over a Brazilian competitor, signed an agreement that allowed the proposed project to proceed. In June 1998, Russian Gazprom withdrew from the project followed by Unocal on Dec. 8, 1998, after which the project was shelved and forgotten for three years. However, after the fall of the Taliban in the last days of 2001 and with the establishment of a new Afghan government interest in the stalled project revived and a new agreement was signed on Dec. 27, 2002, by the leaders of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan, followed by the submission of the final version of a feasibility study by the Asian Development Bank in 2005, which enhanced the chances of the project.
The 1,680 kilometer TAPI pipeline will run from the giant Turkmen Dauletabad gas field to Afghanistan. From there it will be constructed alongside the highway running from Herat to Kandahar, and then via Quetta and Multan in Pakistan. The final destination of the pipeline will be the Indian town of Fazilka, near the border between Pakistan and India. The pipeline will be 1,420 mm in diameter with a working pressure of 100 atmospheres and a capacity of 33 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas annually. The cost of this long infrastructure is estimated at $6 to $7.5 billion.
