Operation Enduring Pipeline by Don Bacon

"Blanketed by vast deserts, Turkmenistan sits atop some of the world's largest natural-gas reserves. As Russia and the West look to secure new gas and oil supplies in a tightening race for energy security, this Central Asian country has landed squarely in their sights. Last weekend, Russia secured a deal for a new pipeline to take Turkmenistan's gas north, delivering a serious setback to US and European hopes for one that would siphon the gas to the West – bypassing Russia's increasingly powerful grip on energy resources and routes."

Setback to the West? Not so fast. In response, last November Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, the four partners of a proposed $3.3 bn pipeline, vowed to accelerate work on the four-nation project to bring natural gas from Turkmenistan to India. The declaration was adopted in New Delhi at a two-day regional economic cooperation forum on Afghanistan, which was attended by Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The proposed gas pipeline project (TAPI) will initially provide 30 million cubic meters of gas to Pakistan and India each and 5 million cubic meters to Afghanistan on a daily basis, which can be later increased up to 90 million cubic meters in aggregate. TAPI will run from the Dovetabat gas deposit in Turkmenistan to the Indian town of Fazilka, near the border between Pakistan and India. Six compressor stations are to be constructed along the pipeline. TAPI certainly would help the consumer countries, Pakistan and India, while Turkmenistan could make billions of dollars from gas exports. But arguably it would benefit US-client Afghanistan most by providing steady transit fees to fill depleted state coffers in Kabul.

The American company Unocal has a ten-year history of interest in the Turkmenistan gas field and a pipeline through Afghanistan. The Taliban wasn't interested, but the Hamid Karzai government is more amenable. On April 28 Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimukhamedov met in Kabul, where they signed an agreement on extension of a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.