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December 2, 2001
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Sunday
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Ramazan 16, 1422
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US targets $5 trillion oil, gas reserves
By Khaleeq Kiani
ISLAMABAD, Dec 1: While Pakistan expects realization of $2 billion Pakistan-Turkmenistan gas pipeline in the post-Afghan war situation, the United States is targeting to capture around $5 trillion of oil and gas’ proven reserves in the Central Asian States.
Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan jointly hold around
15-30 billion barrels of proven oil reserves and around 240 trillion cubic feet of proven gas reserves in the Caspian Sea Region. At last year’s market rate, these reserves were valued at $4-5 trillion, according to independent studies.
Some energy experts in Pakistan believe that as the United States launched the Desert Storm operation in the Gulf in early 1990s to take hold of Arab reserves, the same pattern is being followed in Afghanistan to put its foot in the Caspian Sea Region.
The Heritage Foundation in a testimony to the house of representatives in 1999 said that Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan together “have 15 billion barrels of proven oil reserves and gas deposits totalling over nine trillion cubic meters.”
These analysts believe that a peaceful Afghanistan can play a role of connecting pipelines from Central Asia to international markets of Europe and South Asia besides its own large oil and gas deposits that remained untapped because of unending war for over two decades.
The US-based Unocal withdrew its leading role from Centgas consortium as that had signed an agreement with Pakistan for laying a 1600-km pipeline from Daulatabad in Turkmenistan to Multan in Pakistan through Afghanistan. But before withdrawal, officials of US intelligence agencies made comprehensive surveys of the prospective zones and pipeline routes.
Many in the petroleum ministry in Islamabad suggested that pipeline tariff finalized in the agreement was so low than other competitors from Iran and Qatar that they saw it with skepticism.
Another $600 million investment could have linked this pipeline to India.
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