Proposal for India joining the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan natural gas pipeline project
The Union Cabinet today approved articipation of India in the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TAP) Natural Gas Pipeline Project. With India’s participation, the name of the project will get changed to Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) Natural Gas Pipeline Project.
The Cabinet authorized Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas to put up a formal request for joining the project to the Governments of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkmenistan through ADB’s facilitation.
It also authorized Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas to hold discussions with all concerned parties with a view to finalizing the amendments to the Inter-governmental Agreement and framework Agreement.
With a view to meeting the rapidly growing gas demand of the country, it is projected that substantial quantities of gas would need to be imported. Joining the TAP project offers the possibility of an alternative of source of gas supply to India. At present, the total gas available for consumption in India is around 92 Million Standard Cubic Metres per day (MMSCMD) including regassified LNG, against an estimated demand of around 150 MMSCMD. As per India Hydrocarbon Vision –2025, the gas demand in the country is projected to increase to 313 MMSCMD by 2011-12 and to 391 MMSCMD by 2024-25. Meeting this burgeoning demand is going to involve, in addition to increasing the domestic E&P efforts, considerable volume of gas imports also.
RCJ/UB