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[SUPARCO]

TAPI pipeline project
Pakistan, India, Afghanistan agree on 49.5 cents/mmbtu
Saturday, April 21, 2012

By Zeeshan Javaid

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan, India and Afghanistan have agreed on the rate of transit fee on the supply of gas from Turkmenistan and in this connection a final round of negotiations is to be held on May 24 in Turkmenistan.

While addressing a press conference here on Friday, Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dr Asim Hussain at his office said, "Three countries have agreed on the rate of 49.5 cents per mmbtu."

He said, "Consensus on transit fee of Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) project was a milestone in our history. Negotiations over tariff continued and we can't disclose anything about it now. Gas import through this project would be cheap as compared to Iran-Pakistan (IP) project and annually $1 billion would be saved."

Dr Hussain said the negotiations on IP gas project are also in process and the government has a clear stance on this project. Designing work over this project is also in progress and soon the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) agreement would be advertised in the national dailies, he said.

The federal minister said that liquefied natural gas (LNG) is a difficult subject as this gas is in less quantity in the world and its requirement is too high.

He said the government is negotiating with Algerian government for importing LNG. The minister said this project would also be advertised after approval from the ECC in the next week meeting. For LNG import project, four construction companies have been given licences for this project and gas would not be much expensive as compared to compressed natural gas (CNG).

The federal minister said that the government with the assistance of Pakistan State Oil (PSO) would establish hundred LPG stations throughout the country during the next two to three months to meet growing energy shortage and as a substitute of CNG. The previous governments had ignored the growing energy requirements, which resulted in present shortfall but during the last four years, 30 to 40 mmcfd gas was added to the national system. He said the main focus of the government is on oil and gas exploration and it's being hoped that after three to four years the situation will improve.

Talking about the CNG quota system, the minister said that work is in progress over CNG stations policy and in this regard quota system for stations would be announced during the next two weeks. The federal minister rejected the news about non-transparency in the appointments in Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) and said that for the appointment of OGDCL's chairman, the ministry has sent three names to the prime minister for approval.

He further added that it is the mandate of Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) to give direction of UFG and not of ministry. He said both gas companies in the countries are doing efforts to reduce the ratio of UFG.

Talking about new CNG stations in the country, Dr Asim said that the ministry has stopped 157 licences of new stations because the country is already facing energy shortage and issuance of new licences would increase the problems. He said that if new gas connection would be given to new housing schemes then the gas supply to all sectors would be curtailed.


http://dailytimes.co...21-4-2012_pg5_1

[SUPARCO]

Tapi gas pipeline project: Govt authorizes ISGS to execute GSPA with Turkmenistan
SATURDAY, 05 MAY 2012 11:02
ABDUL RASHEED AZAD

ISLAMABAD: The government has authorized Interstate Gas Systems (ISGS) to execute the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline project’s Gas Sale Purchase Agreement (GSPA) with Turkmenistan.

It was decided in a meeting of the Sub-Committee of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet on the planned gas import projects, which was chaired by Minister for Petroleum Dr Asim Hussain here on Friday.

The meeting called for early implementation of Tapi and Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline projects, directing the concerned quarters to make all-out efforts to complete the two dire needed pipeline projects to meet the rapidly increasing demand of energy.

The committee expressed its satisfaction over the on-going progress on IP gas pipeline project and resolved to implement the project as per agreed timeline.

The government has recently invited bids for constructing 785 kilometers of IP gas pipeline project from pre-qualified parties. The committee directed Ministry of Petroleum and ISGS to ensure all efforts for timely completion of the project.

Officials told Business Recorder that a leading Russian gas exploration company, Gazprom, is the favorite to build and develop IP gas pipeline project that has already submitted Expression of Interest in response to Inter Sate Gas Company’s invitation last year.

Iran has assured Pakistan to provide $500 million funding for the Project and as per draft agreement Pakistan is bound to complete the project by the end of 2014 otherwise it will have to pay a daily penalty of $1 million to Iran.

As per draft agreement of the project, the contractor will have to complete the project within two years 2012-14. The Government of Pakistan is expected to allow exemptions in duties and taxes on the import of certain materials required for gas import projects. EPC contractors are also expected to be exempted from sales tax for services provided on such projects.

It was decided by the Steering Committee/Sub-Committee (SC) of the ECC and ECC of the Cabinet that a debt to equity ratio of 70:30 will be maintained with GoP having majority share in the equity portion of the project.

The government has so far collected approximately Rs 35-40 billion from Gas Infrastructure Development Cess, which would be utilised for construction of IP gas pipeline and other energy projects.

According to the Gas Infrastructure Development Cess Act the collected Cess would be utilised for or in connection with infrastructure development of the IP project, TAPI Pipeline Project, Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and other projects, or for price equalization of other imported alternative fuels including Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG).

The meeting was also attended by Nawab Aslam Raisani, Chief Minister Balochistan, Hina Rabbani Khar, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mir Changez Khan Jamali, Minister for Science and Technology, Ghous Bux Khan Mahar, Minster for Privatization, Makhdoom Shahab-ud-Din, Minister for Textile Industry and Dr Nadeem ul Haq, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission among other members.


http://www.brecorder...kmenistan-.html

[SUPARCO]

Indian cabinet clears Turkmenistan gas deal
Friday 18 May 2012

NEW DELHI - The Indian government has approved a deal to buy natural gas from Turkmenistan via a $7.6 billion pipeline passing through Afghanistan and Pakistan, reports said on Thursday.

The cabinet approved the signing of the Gas Sale and Purchase Agreement as well as the payment of a transit fee to Afghanistan and Pakistan for allowing the pipeline to pass through their territory, the Press Trust of India reported. The 1,735-kilometre pipeline is likely to be operational by 2016, the news agency said, quoting a government official.

The announcement comes after New Delhi said this week it would cut purchases of Iranian oil by 11 percent following US pressure to isolate the Islamic republic over its disputed nuclear programme. Washington favours the Turkmenistan pipeline and has pressured both India and Pakistan to hold off on a pipeline deal with Tehran.

Energy-scarce India, which imports four-fifths of its crude, says it shares the US anti-nuclear proliferation goals but it views Iran as an important source of oil to feed its economy's fast-growing needs.

http://www.pakistant...istan-gas-deal/

[SUPARCO]

India approves plan for Turkmenistan gas imports
Friday, May 18, 2012     

NEW DELHI: India's cabinet on Thursday allowed state-run gas firm GAIL (India) Ltd to sign a gas purchase agreement with Turkmenistan's national oil firm, for supplies from a planned multi-national pipeline, a government statement said.

The proposed 1,700-km Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India line (TAPI) will have a capacity to carry 90 million cubic metres a day (mcmd) gas for a 30-year period and will be operational in 2018, the statement said. India and Pakistan would get 38mcmd each while the remaining 14mcmd will be supplied to Afghanistan, it said.

Turkmenistan, which holds more than four percent of the world's natural gas reserves, is hosting a meeting next week with participants in the US-backed TAPI project to link Turkmen gas fields with India.

Indian Petroleum Minister S Jaipal Reddy is scheduled to lead a delegation to Turkmenistan to sign the agreement on May 23-24. India has nominated state-run GAIL for the purchase of gas.

The pipeline route, particularly the 735-km Afghan leg, presents significant security challenges and will require Pakistan and India to agree on price and other aspects. Participants must also secure funding for the project.

"The provisions of the GSPA (Gas Sale Purchase Agreement) have been structured to protect India's commercial interests as India is at the tail end of the pipeline," the statement said, without elaborating further. "Transit fee and security aspect have been settled," a government source, who did not wish to be identified, told reporters after the cabinet meeting.

Separately, an Oil Ministry official said the transit fee for the gas had been fixed at about 50 cents per million British thermal units (mmBtu).

http://dailytimes.co...8-5-2012_pg7_24

[writer84]

Such projects as TAPI are welcome and tie countries together, underpinning peace.

[SUPARCO]

Turkmen close to gas deal on trans-Afghan pipeline
Monday May 21, 2012



A gas pipeline.—File Photo

Turkmenistan plans this week to sign a long-awaited agreement to supply natural gas to Pakistan and India through an ambitious US-backed pipeline that would cross Afghanistan, a source in the Central Asian country’s government told Reuters on Monday.  

Turkmenistan, which holds more than four per cent of the world’s natural gas reserves, plans to sign the sales and purchase agreement for the Tapi pipeline on Wednesday, during an international gas conference in the Caspian Sea resort of Avaza.

“The plan is to sign the Tapi natural gas sales and purchase agreement with Islamabad and Delhi on May 23 in Avaza, by the Caspian, where the gas congress is opening,” the government source said, on condition of anonymity.

He gave no details of the content of the agreement.

The idea of the Tapi pipeline, an acronym formed from the initials of the four countries through which it would pass, was first raised in the mid-1990s but construction has yet to begin.

In a sign a deal might be imminent, India’s cabinet last week allowed state-run gas-firm Gail (India) Ltd to sign a gas purchase agreement with Turkmenistan.

Turkmen officials have said the proposed 1,735-km pipeline could carry a trillion cubic metres of gas over a 30-year period, or 33 billion cubic metres a year.

But the route, particularly the 735-km leg through the Afghan provinces of Herat and Kandahar, presents significant security challenges and will require billions of dollars in funding.

A US official estimated in March that the pipeline could cost between $10 billion and $12 billion to construct.

Daniel Stein, senior adviser to the US State Department’s special envoy for Eurasian energy, also said that two major US oil companies were interesting in participating in the project.

He declined to name the companies.

Ex-Soviet Turkmenistan is promoting the Tapi pipeline as a key element in plans to cut reliance on supplies to Russia and to boost annual gas exports to 180 billion cubic metres by 2030.

BP data show Turkmenistan’s natural gas reserves equal to those of Saudi Arabia and behind only Russia, Iran and Qatar.

The country aims to supply gas from its Galkynysh field, better known by its previous name, South Iolotan. Auditor Gaffney, Cline & Associates has ranked the field the world’s second largest, with gas reserves of between 13.1 trillion and 21.2 trillion cubic metres.

Volumes and fees

Turkmenistan’s unflinching policy of selling gas at its own borders means Pakistan and India would need to settle volumes, price and transit fees with each other and with Afghanistan.

The Indian government said in a statement on May 17 that the pipeline would be operational in 2018. India and Pakistan would each get 38 million cubic metres per day (mcmd) of gas, while the remaining 14 mcmd would be supplied to Afghanistan, it said.

Indian Petroleum Minister S Jaipal Reddy is scheduled to lead his country’s delegation to Turkmenistan to sign the agreement. India has nominated Gail for the purchase of gas.

Separately, an Indian Oil Ministry official said last week that the transit fee for the gas had been fixed at about 50 cents per million British thermal units (mmBtu).

India, Asia’s third largest oil consumer, imports about 80 per cent of its oil needs while falling local gas output has forced it to buy costly liquefied natural gas.

“We expect that India will more than double gas consumption over the next 25 years,” Ulrich Benterbusch, director of the Global Energy Dialogue at the International Energy Agency, told an international energy conference in Uzbekistan last week.

“Domestic gas production in India will not be able to keep up,” he said.

http://dawn.com/2012...fghan-pipeline/

[SUPARCO]

Turkmenistan agrees TAPI pipeline gas deals
Wednesday May 23, 2012



AVAZA: Turkmenistan agreed on Wednesday to supply natural gas to Pakistan and India in deals that offer major economic benefits but depend on building and defending a US-backed pipeline across chronically unstable Afghanistan.

The route, particularly the 735-km (450-mile) leg through the Afghan provinces of Herat and Kandahar, will need billions of dollars in funding. It faces significant security problems as the Western Nato alliance plans to hand control of Afghanistan to Kabul's own security forces by the middle of next year.

Turkmenistan's state gas company Turkmengaz signed gas sales and purchase agreements with Pakistan's Inter State Gas Systems and Indian state-run utility GAIL.

"The implementation of this project will give a powerful impetus to the social and economic development of all the participant countries," Turkmen Deputy Prime Minister Baimurad Hojamukhamedov said before the signing ceremony in Avaza on the Caspian Sea.

India and Pakistan are both hungry for gas supplies and Turkmenistan, formerly part of the Soviet Union, is keen to free itself from reliance on gas exports to Russia.

Lilit Gevorgyan, analyst at IHS Global Insight, said that while the pipeline could be a lucrative commercial project, it would run through more than one high security risk country, "which puts the actual construction under a big question mark".

The idea of the TAPI pipeline, an acronym formed from the initials of the four countries through which it would pass, was first raised in the mid-1990s but construction has yet to begin.

Turkmen officials have said the proposed 1,735-km (1,085-mile) pipeline could carry 1 trillion cubic metres of gas over a 30-year period, or 33 billion cubic metres a year.

Turkmenistan, a desert country of 5.5 million which borders Iran, is viewed by human rights bodies as one of the world's most secretive and repressive countries.

But Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, who has a growing personality cult, has moved in recent years to warm ties with the West, whose political support and investment he needs to lay alternative gas export routes.

SECURITY AND COSTS

The major obstacle to the project is the stretch of pipeline that will run through Afghanistan. Nato set an "irreversible" course out of Afghanistan on Monday but US President Barack Obama admitted its plan to end the deeply unpopular war in 2014 was fraught with dangers.

A Nato summit in Chicago endorsed an exit strategy that calls for handing control of Afghanistan to its security forces next year but left questions unanswered about how to prevent a slide into chaos and a resurgence of the Taliban after allied troops are gone.

"Ultimately we believe that all the challenges, including security challenges that the project faces, can be managed or overcome," Daniel Stein, senior adviser to the US State Department's special envoy for Eurasian energy, told Reuters in Avaza on Wednesday. He did not elaborate.

But IHS Global Insight's Gevorgyan wrote in comments to Reuters that "the project had a slim fighting chance in the past decade as Nato was still in Afghanistan".

"With the Western troops' pullout by 2014 from the still volatile Afghanistan, building an expensive pipeline in country with very weak central government seems almost unattainable."

The Asian Development Bank said the TAPI pipeline was estimated to cost at least $7.6 billion in 2008. Analysts and officials now say it could cost between $10 billion and $12 billion to construct.

Strained ties between nuclear powers India and Pakistan, which have fought several wars and been involved in border conflicts and military standoffs since the 1947 partition of British India, is another source of concern.

"Given the animosity between the two countries, if TAPI is ever to be built it is likely to be a high-value target in Pakistan, where a number of religious fundamentalist groups will ensure that no energy supply enters India through their territory," Gevorgyan wrote.

In Avaza, Pakistani Petroleum and Natural Resources Minister Asim Hussain showed optimism. "We will forget our past," he said. "Let bygone be bygone and let's move into the future."

Turkmenistan is promoting TAPI as a key element in plans to boost annual gas exports to 180 billion cubic metres by 2030.

BP data show Turkmenistan's natural gas reserves equal to those of Saudi Arabia and behind only Russia, Iran and Qatar.

The country aims to supply gas from its Galkynysh field, better known by its previous name, South Iolotan. Auditor Gaffney, Cline & Associates has ranked the field the world's second largest, with gas reserves of between 13.1 trillion and 21.2 trillion cubic metres.

The Indian government said in a statement on May 17 that the pipeline would be operational in 2018. India and Pakistan would each get 38 million cubic metres per day (mcmd) of gas, while the remaining 14 mcmd would be supplied to Afghanistan, it said.

Separately, an Indian Oil Ministry official said last week that the transit fee for the gas had been fixed at about 50 cents per million British thermal units (mmBtu).

India, Asia's third-largest oil consumer, imports about 80 percent of its oil needs while falling local gas output has forced it to buy costly liquefied natural gas.

http://www.geo.tv/Ge...l.aspx?ID=50532

[SUPARCO]

Turkmen oil and gas minister sacked two days after TAPI pipeline deal
Saturday May 26, 2012



Head of state energy company Turkmengaz Sahatmurad Mamedov, left, and Head of Pakistan’s Inter State Gas System Mobin Saulat sign documents for construction of a 1,800-kilometer gas pipeline at a signing ceremony in Avaza, Turkmenistan, Wednesday, May 23, 2012.—AP Photo

MOSCOW: Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov sacked his oil and gas minister, citing his poor performance on state television on Friday, just two days after the Central Asian nation agreed landmark deals to supply natural gas to Pakistan and India.

The deals agreed on Wednesday offer major economic benefits but depend on building and defending a US-backed pipeline across violence-wracked Afghanistan, including a 735-km leg through the provinces of Herat and Kandahar.
A former deputy head of Turkmenistan’s state gas company Turkmengaz, Kakageldy Abdullaev, was named acting oil and gas minister to replace Bayramgeldy Nedirov, who had held his post since August 2008.

Turkmenistan, which holds the world’s fourth-largest reserves of natural gas, produced 66 billion cubic metres (bcm) of the fuel in 2011, an official said on Thursday, in a rare disclosure of such data in the secretive Central Asian nation.

Berdymukhamedov, who wields virtually unlimited powers and is popularly known as Arkadag (The Patron), usually personally informs the nation of 5.5 million of its economic performance.

“Nedirov did not carry out orders, which inflicted damage on the state economy. Due to this, I am letting him go,” Berdymukhamedov was shown on state television as saying.

BP data show that Turkmenistan and Saudi Arabia each hold 4.3 per cent of the world’s natural gas reserves. Only Russia, Iran and Qatar have larger shares.

http://dawn.com/2012...-pipeline-deal/

[SUPARCO]

IP and TAPI gas pipelines
Pakistan submits details of gas projects to Russia
Friday, June 29, 2012

By Zeeshan Javaid

ISLAMABAD: Russian financing for two mega gas import projects including Iran-Pakistan (IP) and Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) having accumulated cost of $9.2 billion entered in the second phase as energy managers on Thursday submitted complete details of the design and specification of both gas import projects to Russian authorities.

The sources in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources informed this scribe that a high-profile Russian delegation led by Deputy Minister for Energy YP Sentyurin called on Adviser to the Prime Minister on Petroleum and Natural Resources Dr Asim Hussain.

As expressing their keen interest to finance IP and TAPI gas import projects, Russian authorities demanded technical as well as design and specification details of both the billion-dollar projects, which later on the Ministry of Petroleum handed over to the guest delegation.

He further said that Russian authorities assured Pakistani petroleum managers to came back with a financial model soon for financing of these projects after comprehensive homework of the Russian government and their companies, which later could be negotiate.

Russia expressed its keen interest to finance particularly the $1.6 billion IP gas pipeline project, when Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar was on a four-day visit to Moscow in February 2012, however Russian energy giant Gazprom linked this offer with awarding contract without bidding.

The federal government is looking to increase its fuel imports from various sources, including Iran, to reduce power shortages that have crippled the country’s industry and shaved percentage points off its gross domestic product growth.

The multi-billion-dollar gas pipeline aims to export a daily amount of 21.5 million cubic metres (or 7.8 billion cubic metres per year) of the Iranian natural gas to Pakistan.

The maximum daily gas transfer capacity of the 56-inch pipeline, which runs over 900 kilometres of Iran’s soil from Asalouyeh in Bushehr province to the city of Iranshahr in Sistan and Balochistan province has been estimated at 110 million cubic metres.

An official of the Petroleum Ministry on condition of anonymity informed that the Petroleum Ministry has been seeking full accumulated financing for IP-TAPI gas import projects, however federal minister kept flexible approach before Russian energy giants, adding two Russian energy giants Gazprom EP and PJSC Stroytransgaz.

Pakistan, India and Afghanistan already agreed on rate of transit fee on supply of gas from Turkmenistan on rate of 49.5 cent per million British thermal unit (MMBTU), Petroleum Ministry claimed that gas import through this project would be cheap as compared to IP project and annually $1 billion would be saved.

Under the agreement Afghanistan’s share would be 500 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd), Pakistan 1,325 mmcfd and India 1,325 mmcfd, 1,680 kilometres (kms) long TAPI gas pipeline backed by the Asian Development Bank will bring 3.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day (bcfd) from Turkmenistan’s gas fields to Multan and end at the northwestern Indian town of Fazilka.

According to communiqué issued from Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources, Dr Hussain welcomed the interest shown by Russian Federation in TAPI and IP pipeline projects, and expressed confidence over the bilateral cooperation between Pakistan and Russian Federation.

Petroleum secretary briefed the delegation on latest position of TAPI and IP pipeline projects, and emphasised on expanding the bilateral treaty framework of cooperation in oil and gas sector.

It was agreed between the two sides that details of the two mega gas projects would be shared immediately and financial modalities would remain negotiable. Representatives of Russian companies including Gazprom EP and PJSC Stroytransgaz also briefed the Dr Hussain on possible expertise that could be provided for the TAPI and IP projects.

It may be recalled that the 12-member Russian delegation is visiting Pakistan in connection with the second meeting of the Russian-Pakistani Joint Working Group on Energy Cooperation that is being held in Pakistan.

http://dailytimes.co...ry_29-6-2012_pg5_1