Turkmenistan - The TAPI Project - A Geo-Political Challenge.

Publication: APS Review Gas Market Trends

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COPYRIGHT 2008 Input Solutions

Since Niyazov's death, IOCs have been racing to Ashgabat and the feeding frenzy has revived the 1,680-km Trans-Afghan-Pakistan-India line (TAPI), this being one of the most grandiose visions promoted by the US. Russia is lobbying strongly against this project, despite the fact that Gazprom was initially part of a US-led consortium promoting the venture in the 1990s.

TAPI, in fact, is the epitome of a project where reveries of riches trump geography and geo-political reality, as it would pass through some of the world's most turbulent landscapes en route to the dynamic Indian energy market. The US is promoting a super-triangle of economies and powers to run from Japan to India and, through the GME, on to Europe - with the GME to feed its energy needs and the trans-Caspian corridor and Nabucco being among the components (see the implications of this long-term strategy in news13LebSceneFrBiggerGamesSep22-08). What is not at issue is the immensity of Turkmenistan's natural gas reserves, estimated to be the fourth largest in the world, after Russia, the US and Iran.

If geo-political reality is ignored, then the US-backed TAPI could be a major component of Ashgabat's...

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