Indian govt officials discuss Turkmen gas pipeline pricing

Aim is to resolve security and fee issues by end-December.

After signing of various heads of agreement for the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (Tapi) gas pipeline in September, India has begun negotiating the pricing and security issues with the other three nations.

A delegation led by a joint secretary from the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas is in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, to discuss these.

“India is more keen on the Tapi pipeline than the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline, where nothing has moved since the past two years due to opposition from the US,” said an official.

Addressing India’s concern on Tapi will be significant for all the partners, since it will consume more than a third of the gas to be transported by the $7.6-billion pipeline. India wishes to see resolution of issues related to security, pricing and transit fee by December.

“Ensuring safety of the pipeline will be the responsibility of member countries, which are also the user countries in this case. Afghanistan has given a presentation on security in the meeting held last week. Pakistan is also expected to give a presentation on security, probably in the next meeting,” Jitin Prasada, minister of state for petroleum and natural gas, had told Business Standard on his return from Turkmenistan in September.

Through the Tapi transnational pipeline, India is expected to get 38 million standard cubic metres a day (mscmd) of natural gas from Turkmenistan. Earlier, a formula had been proposed where the four nations would work towards finalising a multiple linked to the Japanese Crude Cocktail.

Turkmenistan is keen to close a deal for the purchase of gas by December and begin work on the pipeline by 2014. Of the 90 mscmd of gas to be pushed from the Dauletabad field in Turkmenistan, Afghanistan would consume 14 mscmd, while 38 mscmd each would be taken by India and Pakistan.

IPI has faced stiff opposition from the US since Iran is under sanctions from the United Nations for its nuclear programme. Tapi, on the other hand, has backing from the Asian Development Bank.