Page 7 - MEOG Week 15 2022
P. 7
MEOG PIPELINES & TRANSPORT MEOG
India discusses Iran gas
link in Turkmen talks
IRAN THE concept of piping gas from Turkmenistan the ascent of the Taliban in the wake of the fall of
to Iran’s southeastern Chabahar port for further president Ashraf Ghani’s government in Kabul
distribution by ship has some fans in India and last August.
may have received some further discussion as The Taliban regime will almost certainly stay
India’s President Shri Ram Nath Kovind visited more attuned to the interests of India’s arch-rival
Turkmenistan from April 1-4. Pakistan.
India has long sought to benefit from Turk- Thus, in his talks with Kovind, Turkmeni-
menistan’s huge gas reserves, but there is as yet stan’s new president, Serdar Berdimuhamedov,
little clarity on whether the severely delayed proposed Turkmenistan-via-Iran as an alterna-
Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India tive transit route to Afghanistan-via-Iran and
(TAPI) pipeline project will ever get past myriad suggested initiating talks between management
difficulties – not least the need to obtain security at Chabahar and the Turkmen port of Turkmen-
guarantees in Taliban-run Afghanistan – to see bashi on the Caspian Sea.
the light of day. Turkmenistan still hopes to find a way to
At the same time, Delhi, which six years export gas to Europe via a Caspian Sea route,
ago agreed to invest $500mn into building and but the idea of it one day shipping gas to India
operating port facilities at Chabahar, Iran’s sole and other countries via the Indian Ocean port
oceanic port, knows that its ambition to use of Chabahar cannot be discounted if an arrange-
Chabahar as a hub from which it could distrib- ment can be found with Iran, itself not short on
ute its shipped-in exports to Afghanistan, Cen- ambition to dramatically drive up its own gas
tral Asia and beyond has hit difficulties related to exports.
Week 15 13•April•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P7
