Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan pipeline

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Map of the course of the pipeline

The Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan Pipeline ( abbr.TAP ), English Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline , is a natural gas pipeline that has been planned since the 1990s , which was originally to be built under the leadership of the Asian Development Bank , however - now as Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan- India pipeline ( abbr.TAPI ). In Turkmenistan, the official start of construction of the TAPI took place in December 2015.

Course and transport performance

The starting point of the pipeline in Turkmenistan were originally the production fields to Döwletabad be whose gas reserves were estimated cubic meters to 1.7 trillion in 2002, but which are now considered too low to the pipeline to eat on time so that now the gas field Galkynysch as Starting point was determined.

The original TAP would then route the natural gas through Afghanistan to ports on the Indian Ocean in Pakistan and, according to the plans, run along the highway from Herat to Kandahar in Afghanistan and on through Quetta and Multan in Pakistan. 830 kilometers of the TAP should run in Afghanistan, another 400 km in Pakistan and the cost of its construction, according to initial estimates, will amount to 3.5 billion US dollars.

In 2008 India finally joined the future users of the pipeline, which as TAPI will now transport around 30 billion cubic meters of gas annually and will extend a total of 1,814 kilometers to Fazilka on the Pakistani-Indian border.

History of origin

In addition to its own mineral resources, Afghanistan is a key country due to its geographical location as a potential transit country between the countries in Central Asia, which have immense oil and natural gas reserves, and the neighboring Transcaucasus: Kazakhstan , Turkmenistan , Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan . The idea of ​​laying a gas pipeline through Afghanistan goes back to the head of the Argentine oil company Bridas, Carlos Bulgheroni. Bridas invested in natural gas production in Turkmenistan as early as 1991 and was looking for a way to export the produced gas. But also Unocal , then the twelfth largest oil company in the USA , a member of a consortium of eight western oil companies for the joint exploitation of the oil fields around Baku in Azerbaijan, was very interested in a pipeline through Afghanistan. After Turkmenistan and Pakistan had already signed a contract for such a pipeline with the Argentine Bridas Oil , Unocal also targeted a pipeline in a preliminary agreement with the Taliban in 1995 , a year before they conquered Kabul. Despite this, Bridas managed to get the approval of all warring parties in Afghanistan, including the Taliban, in 1996. The proposal of a publicly accessible pipeline, into which other companies and countries could feed their own gas over time, appealed to the warlords, as they could impose transit fees and Afghanistan had its own gas fields in the north.

Unocal, which already had considerable experience in Asia and had worked in Pakistan since 1976, secured the cooperation of influential lobbyists such as ex-Secretary of State Henry Kissinger , the former US ambassador to Pakistan, Robert Oakley , and the former employee of the UN special mission in Afghanistan, Charlie Santos, also an American, and was able to encourage people in key positions in the Clinton administration - such as the then Vice-Secretary of State and Commissioner for South Asia, Robin Raphel and members of the National Security Council (NSC) - for the idea of ​​a slightly modified Afghanistan Win pipeline. In 1997, in the presence of the Unocal advisor and later American special envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, further talks took place between Unocal and the now ruling Taliban, aimed at implementing the 1995 plans to build a pipeline through western Afghanistan. Under massive US pressure, Pakistan and Turkmenistan broke the contract they had signed with the Argentine Bridas Oil and gave Unocal the contract. In 1996 Bridas sued Unocal for $ 15 billion in damages for the theft of the pipeline idea through Afghanistan. The Bridas also brought a lawsuit against Turkmenistan for breach of contract regarding the blockade of the Yashlar and Keimir fields. However, Unocal's lawyers knew how to pull the process out for six years.

Bridas had the advantage over its competitor Unocal that it did not need funds from international financial institutions, which would have required an internationally recognized government in Kabul. Bridas was able to start building the pipeline immediately without any preconditions. A recognized government in Kabul was a prerequisite for Unocal in order to receive loans for the project from the World Bank.

In December 1998, Unocal withdrew from the pipeline consortium due to the pressure that formed against the Taliban from politics, the public and also the shareholders.

Contract signing without start of construction

The contract for the pipeline, which had already been negotiated with the overthrown Taliban regime, was signed by the heads of state of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan on December 27, 2002. The contract was made possible by the US invasion of Afghanistan the year before. The Afghan government should receive eight percent of the income; the operators promise 12,000 new jobs in the economically depressed, war-ravaged country. Nevertheless, the implementation of the construction project is currently largely on hold: work on the section running through Turkmenistan should start in 2006, but the implementation of the entire project is up for grabs because the southern section of the pipeline would run through areas that are still are de facto under the control of the Taliban and the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda .

In 1998, plans for a much more extensive project for a Central Asian oil pipeline with almost the same course were suspended after the US company Unocal ( lobbyists at the time : Henry Kissinger and Richard Armitage ) its participation in the CentGas consortium formed in 1997 amounting to 8 billion dollars had withdrawn. This pipeline, also running through Afghanistan and ending in South Asia, should have a capacity of around 160 million liters (1 million barrels) per day. Turkmenistan concentrated in the following years on doing business with Russian energy companies such as Lukoil .

On the other hand, after India's participation in the TAP seemed uncertain for years, the Trans-Afghanistan-Pakistan pipeline is now seen as crucial for meeting the rapidly growing energy demand on the subcontinent. However, it is currently (early 2006) unclear whether a 640-kilometer extension to India, which was being considered in 2002, will be implemented. As LNG ( Liquefied Natural Gas ) in any case - Japan in particular is dependent on imports as long as a pipeline from western Kazakhstan to Xinjiang ( People's Republic of China ) and possibly further to the Pacific coast seems impracticable, especially for economic reasons (it would be too expensive), but also for political reasons (Xinjiang is a potentially rebellious province) - Turkmen and possibly later Afghan natural gas is to be shipped from Pakistani ports to all of East and Southeast Asia. The imports of liquefied natural gas by Japan, South Korea and Taiwan already (as of 2005) account for almost 80 percent of global LNG trade.

development

In 2014, Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow announced that construction would start in 2015, but the project made slow progress due to the political tensions and fragile security situation in the region.

According to Berdimuhamedov's latest statements, the pipeline should be operational in December 2019 [obsolete] and then be able to deliver 32 billion cubic meters of gas annually. According to information from the Turkmen Oil and Gas Ministry in March 2016, pipes are being welded on the pipeline section in Turkmenistan. The section is 214 kilometers long and runs from the Galkynysch gas field to the Afghan border.

According to the government of Turkmenistan, construction of the Afghan section of the pipeline began on February 23, 2018.

Further pipeline projects in the region

Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline

As an oil and gas supplier, however, Iran has long been of great importance to the more than one billion Indians, and so, since, according to observers, Pakistan and India wanted to rely not only on one pillar that was also controlled by the US, between the states involved also agreed to build an Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline (IPI) projected to be 2,775 kilometers. And although in September 2005 it initially seemed as if there was a falling out between Iran and India after India had voted for a resolution condemning Iran for its nuclear program at the IAEA Council , negotiations on the gas pipeline continued Resumed at Deputy Minister level in New Delhi at the end of December 2005.

Similar to the TAPI, however, the IPI project made slow progress in the following years due to political tensions between those involved and the pressure from the USA, which at that time seemed to be excluded for direct cooperation with the rogue state of Iran: it was still off in mid-2011 assuming that the pipeline could go into operation at the end of 2014, this date seems completely unclear at the moment (beginning of 2016).

Myanmar-Bangladesh-India pipeline

Finally, a third pipeline was to lead from Myanmar via Bangladesh to India, and construction was to begin in 2005. According to observers, the goal of the government in New Delhi, above all the oil minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, was to create a trans-Asian gas network that - with the dedicated involvement of the former rival China - would extend from the Persian Gulf to Southeast Asia . At the turn of 2005/2006, however, there seemed to have been serious setbacks on this issue due to separate agreements between Myanmar and Chinese companies, followed by differences between India and Bangladesh, which finally led to the temporary halt of the entire project in 2010. According to press reports from mid-2015, however, there is now a rapprochement between the parties involved to continue the project.

literature

  • Ahmed Rashid: Taliban: Islam, Oil and the New Great Game in Central Asia. IB Tauris & Co Ltd; New Ed edition 2002, ISBN 1-86064-830-4 .

Individual evidence

  1. Turkmenistan expands the Silk Road , Top Energy News, March 16, 2016
  2. Jan Heller: The Afghanistan War, the Taleban and the Oil , disloyal - Journal für Antimilitarismus, No. 12, summer 2000 , last accessed February 28, 2016.
  3. Hubert Erb; Hidden Targets , Telepolis (online magazine) , October 13, 2001, last accessed February 28, 2016.
  4. Thomas Immanuel Steinberg, War for Oil from Karachi to Trieste , Junge Welt , November 10, 2001, last accessed February 28, 2016.
  5. Wolfgang-Peter Zingel; INDIA - Wirtschaft , Südasien-Institut Heidelberg , probably at the end of December 1997, last accessed on February 28, 2016.
  6. Turkmenistan may start TAPI construction in 2015 ; Vestnik Kavkaza, April 11, 2014 , last accessed February 28, 2016.
  7. ^ Marc Grossman: The Trans-Afghan Pipeline Initiative: No Pipe Dream ; YaleGlobal, August 28, 2014 ( Memento of the original from February 28, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , last accessed February 28, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / yaleglobal.yale.edu
  8. Trans-Afghan gas pipeline may become a reality: Pradhan ; The Hindu, March 9, 2015 , last accessed February 28, 2016.
  9. Consortium Leader Picked for Trans-Afghan Pipeline ; Eurasianet.org, August 6, 2015 , last accessed February 28, 2016.
  10. Turkmenistan starts work on gas link to Afghanistan, Pakistan, India ; Reuters, December 13, 2015 , last accessed February 28, 2016.
  11. AHK Kazakhstan: Construction of the Afghan part of the TAPI gas pipeline has started. Retrieved May 19, 2018 .
  12. ^ New Delhi committed to pipeline: minister , Dawn , February 9, 2006, last accessed February 28, 2016.
  13. Iran can use its "energy card" as a trump card , Radio China International , December 30, 2005, last accessed February 28, 2016.
  14. US opposes gas pipeline project , Dawn , January 6, 2006, last accessed February 28, 2016.
  15. Between politics and the pipeline ; Deutsche Welle , April 8, 2005, last accessed February 28, 2016.
  16. Ahmad Ahmadani: First flow of gas possible in December 2014 , The Nation, May 22, 2011 ( Memento of the original from December 29, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , last accessed February 28, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nation.com.pk
  17. Parwini Zora and Niall Green: China and India maneuver to secure energy supplies , World Socialist Web Site, January 31, 2006, last accessed February 28, 2016.
  18. Varigonda Kesava Chandra: The Myanmar-Bangladesh-India (MBI) pipeline project: A regrettable case of lack of convergence in national energy policies ; theindependent, October 6, 2015, last accessed February 28, 2016.
  19. Official talks on Myanmar-India-Bangla pipeline to start soon ; IndianExpress, July 3, 2015 , last accessed February 28, 2016.