The Express Tribune: TAPI pipeline: Officials to finalise contract award in Ashgabat next week

Officials of Pakistan, India, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan are set to meet in Ashgabat next week to push ahead with a planned transnational gas pipeline connecting the four countries and reach a settlement on the award of the multi-billion-dollar project to US companies.

“The US is pushing the four countries to grant the lucrative pipeline contract to its energy giants. Two US firms – Chevron and ExxonMobil – are in the race to become consortium leaders, win the project and finance the laying of the pipeline,” a senior government official said while talking to The Express Tribune.

Washington has been lobbying for the gas supply project, called Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India (Tapi) pipeline, terming it an ideal scheme to tackle energy shortages in Pakistan. On the other side, it pressed Islamabad to shelve the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline because of a nuclear standoff with Tehran.

In 1997, US-based Unicol, which was the consortium leader to finance the Tapi pipeline, pulled out following directives of the US State Department, which feared that the royalty generated from the scheme would land in Taliban’s hands.

Unicol withdrew after Pakistan signed a gas framework agreement to secure cheaper supplies, leaving the country in the lurch. MORE