Links With Taliban Cloud Unocals

The Indian government is keeping US multinational Unocal at bay following allegations of the American companys involvement in funding the Talibans in Afghanistan. The energy resource company has, for some time now, been making repeated attempts to meet top politicians and bureaucrats in India.

While some of the earlier attempts by the US company were successful, it has been denied appointments after allegations of the companys financial involvement in the Afghan war began appearing in the press.

Top officials of the Unocal have, in fact, been unable to meet the Indian Prime Minister whose reluctance to meet the companys officials is being attributed as a deliberate move on the part of the government which has been adopting a neutral stance in the Afghan affairs.

Moreover, sources say, the government would not like to have anything to do with any foreign company in this country that indulges in anything but commercial activities. This has created difficulties for Unocal which has been eyeing India as its biggest market in the region.

India assumes significance for the company in view of its designs to lay a natural gas pipeline from Central Asia to Pakistan via Afghanistan. Unocal plans to extend the pipeline to India which has the potential of being the biggest consumer of natural gas in the entire Asia-Pacific region.

The pipeline, it is being argued, will not be viable unless India agrees to import natural gas through it. This is because Afghanistans economic activity does not permit it to import natural gas in any significant measure. Further, Pakistan too is not a big consumer of natural gas.

Moreover, the allegations have cast a shadow on the companys other plans in India. It has already set up a wholly-owned subsidiary called Unocal Bharat Limited. Besides supplying gas and liquid fuel in the country, the Indian subsidiary also plans to develop low-cost power projects and set up energy-related infrastructure.

Unocal Corporation has 87 million tonnes of oil and 192,000 million cubic metres of gas reserves all over the world. It produces 31,200 tonnes of oil per day and 50 million cubic metres of gas per day. Moreover, its power plants produce 4,500 mw across the globe.

Unocal is also the worlds largest producer of geo-thermal energy for electricity generation.