The once proposed TAPI pipeline of decades past which is widely cited in the alternative media as a rationale for ongoing occupation of Afghanistan has been superseded and made redundant by more recent developments.
Xinhua Economic News - 10/21/2009
PetroChina's First West-to-East pipeline has supplied an accumulative 60 billion cubic meters of natural gas since it entered operation in 2004, reported CNPC's website.
The First West-to-East pipeline is designed to have an annual transportation capacity of 12 billion cubic meters and in the past years it has been in full operation, helping meet China's climbing natural gas consumption that spiraled up from 41 billion cubic meters in 2004 to 78 billion cubic meters in 2008.
The report said China's accumulative additional gas consumption during the 2004-2008 period reached 83.4 billion cubic meters, PetroChina's First West-to-East pipeline sold a total of 46.699 billion cubic meters during the period.
PetroChina is currently building the Second West-to-East pipeline that will pump Turkmenistan gas from western Xinjiang to eastern Guangdong province with annual transportation capacity of 30 billion cubic meters.
Update: 01-08-10 | Asia Times
... Turkmenistan has committed its entire gas exports to China, Russia and Iran. It has no urgent need of the pipelines that the United States and the European Union have been advancing. Are we hearing the faint notes of a Russia-China-Iran symphony?
The 182-kilometer Turkmen-Iranian pipeline starts modestly with the pumping of 8 billion cubic meters (bcm) of Turkmen gas. But its annual capacity is 20bcm, and that would meet the energy requirements of Iran's Caspian region and enable Tehran to free its own gas production in the southern fields for export...
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Hello...You passed comment on my article about the TAPI pipeline being superseded and redundant?
ReplyDeleteI totally disagree with you.....As you see on this map above there is a short pipeline heading south out of Turmenistan that hits the Afghanistan border.....this is the start of the TAPI pipeline which will then go to Herat and across the south of Afghanistan into Pakistan and India....on our map there is no source of supply to Pakistan and India who desperaterly need natural gas. The new highway that has been built will be the path of the TAPI pipeline which they hope to start in 2010 subject to security.....that is why they want the troop surge to secure the path.....this map prooves nothing....Peter Eyre - Middle East Consultant 25/12/2009
Peter,
ReplyDeleteIn fact Turkmenistan exports gas to Iran which uses Turkmen gas for its own consumption while exporting Iranian gas which is produced near the Persian gulf. The pipeline you cite does not terminate at the Afghan border, in fact the map shows clearly that it goes to Iran where it is in service at this time. Most of Iran's population is located near the Turkmenistan gas supplies.
India has more practical energy sources that don't involve transporting gas away from areas where it already has ready demand. These include abundant coal, closer access to Iranian gas fields, and nuclear power which is what the Western corporations want India to use. There simply is no current viable use for the once proposed TAPI pipeline which was conceived in an era prior to the growth of China's energy demand.