Assocham seeks OilMin support for natural gas pipeline project

Industry body Assocham has asked the Oil Ministry to support a subsea natural gas pipeline project being developed by South Asia Gas Enterprises (SAGE) to secure India's energy requirements.

"An underwater project to bring natural gas directly from the Middle East to India being developed by a global consortium led by SAGE may be examined for consideration of grant to support the project," Assocham said in a letter to Petroleum & Natural Gas Minister Veerappa Moily.

According to Assocham, the subsea natural gas pipeline from the Middle East to India has assumed more significance as other gas line projects likIran-Pakistan-India (IPI) and Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) have made little progress.

SAGE has undertaken a project to build the deepest underwater transnational gas pipeline, also known as the Middle East to India Deepwater Pipeline (MEIDP), to connect the gas rich Gulf & Middle East regions to India for the transportation of Natural Gas to fulfil India's energy needs.

"One of the important features of this pipeline corridor is that it will completely bypass Pakistan thus averting major threat perception from fundamentalist elements and resultant supply disruption," Assocham Secretary General D S Rawat said.

Such projects involve geo-political implications owing to severe global competition to access natural resources like oil and gas from other countries and international companies, thus it is difficult for private firms to conclude them on their own without government support, Assocham said.