The ambitious Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) which has failed to take off owing to the failure of the four nations to finalise a consortium partner as well as due to Ashgabat's unwillingness to give share in its oil and gas fields to any foreign entity, could witness renewed efforts to put it back on tracks. According to sources, a meeting of the member nations is scheduled for July 9 to resolve the deadlock and issues holding back the project are likely to be discussed.
State-owned GAIl which represents India in the project is to participate in this meeting, and the Maharatna company's Chairman B C Tripathi is heading for Ashgabat on July 8 to attend the deliberations. Sources privy to the development said that the meeting has been called to start a fresh process of looking for a consortium partner, and there is a likelihood that member nations may ask Turkmenistan to soften its stand on not giving any share to foreign companies in its fields.
It is essential for Turkmenistan to review its stand as its stubbornness apparently has sent out a negative signal globally, and no oil and gas firm has come forward to act as the project's consortium partner, they added. Sources said that recent road shows held in New York, london as well as Singapore failed to evince any interest among energy entities, mainly due to Ashgabat's decision of not giving any share to them in its reserves.
This therefore, is likely to be focal point of the meeting scheduled later this week, they added. Termed as a “Peace Pipeline”, considering the fact that it has been planned in the ravaged South-Asian region, the $ 9 billion worth project is likely to be completed by 2017-18. The pipeline will be 1,680 km and passing through Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan, will end in Punjab in India. It will have a capacity to carry 90 million standard cubic metres of gas per day (mmscmd) for a 30-year period.
The four nations have nominated a company each for implementation of the project with GAIl being the Indian representative. India and Pakistan would get 38 mmscmd each, while the remaining 14 mmscmd will be supplied to Afghanistan.
Though India imports natural gas and has been quite keen on TAPI project, owing to the difficulties being faced by it, the Government is also open to the prospect of looking at alternative ideas of seeking gas shipments. An option currently being worked out by New Delhi is to set up a Russia-India pipeline which will bring gas from that country.