Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Afghanistan will safeguard Turkmen gas pipeline: Minister
Reuters
Islamabad, April 13, 2005
Afghanistan will ensure the safety of a proposed gas pipeline from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to Pakistan, an Afghan government minister said on Wednesday.
The long-delayed project envisages a $3.3 billion pipeline running 1,600 km (1,000 miles) and providing Turkmenistan with a new outlet for its gas, Afghanistan with transit revenue and Pakistan with much needed energy.
Among reasons for the delay have been worry about security in Afghanistan and questions over the size of the reserves in Turkmenistan's Dauletabad gasfield.
But Afghan Minister for Mines and Industries Mir Mohammad Sediq said he hoped security would not be an issue.
"We have taken the steps for the assurance in terms of security for all ongoing projects in Afghanistan," Sediq told reporters after meeting Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
"Once this project starts, we hope, there will not be any problem," he said.
The pipeline is expected to cross the southern province of Kandahar where Taliban guerrillas still launch raids on international and Afghan government troops and other targets.
Ministers from the three countries involved in the project are having two days of talks in the Pakistani capital.
Turkmen Minister for Oil Industry and Mineral Resources Amangeldy Pudakov said he was confident reserves in the Dauletabad gasfield would be sufficient for the project, but he gave no figures.
"We assure all the sides that this gas reserve will be sufficient for this project," Pudakov told reporters.
"EXAMINING ALL OPTIONS"
According to Turkmen estimates, Dauletabad has reserves of 1.7 trillion cubic metres, making it the world's fourth largest gasfield.
Energy-rich Turkmenistan, bordering Afghanistan and Iran, had long sought to free itself of its dependence on Russia's Soviet-era gas pipeline network.
Proposals to build a pipeline through Afghanistan have been on the table since the 1990s when the radical Taliban ruled the country.
U.S. energy firm Unocal withdrew from a plan in 1998, in which it was to lead an international consortium, because of fighting between the Taliban and Afghan opposition groups and concern about Taliban's human rights record and its sheltering of al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
Pakistan, which is expected to face a major shortage of oil and gas by 2010, is considering three trans-regional gas projects, including pipelines from Iran and Qatar.
"We are examining all options and we will adopt the best," Pakistan's Petroleum Minister Amanullah Khan Jadoon said.
India is also hoping to get gas supplies via Pakistan, now that relations between the South Asian rivals are improving, but the United States has expressed opposition to a proposed pipeline from Iran, through Pakistan, to India because of questions over Iran's nuclear programme.
© HT Media Ltd. 2004.