9 April 2005	Saturday	29 Safar 1426

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ISLAMABAD, April 8: A three-nation ministerial steering committee on gas pipelines project will meet here on April 12-13 to discuss security situation in Afghanistan, underground gas storage capacity in Pakistan and certification of gas reserves in Turkmenistan’s Daulatabad gas field.

A petroleum ministry official told Dawn on Friday that the meeting would be given four presentations relating to the construction of pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan and India.

The Turkmenistan government would give a presentation on the certification of Daulatabad gas field reserves. The steering committee involving Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan would then discuss the certification in detail. Representatives of the Asian Development Bank would also attend the meeting. M/s Penspen, the consultant appointed by the ADB, would give a presentation on the project’s feasibility study covering its technical, economic and legal aspects.

The Afghan representative would brief the participants about the security situation in his country in general and the pipeline’s route areas in particular.

The fourth presentation would be given by Sohfer gas, appointed by the government of Pakistan, on the prospects of utilizing the country’s depleted underground storages to ensure uninterrupted supply in winter.

The sources said that gas supplies in summer were usually surplus and could be stored in strategic reserves in the old gas fields which had been depleted over the years.

The Daulatabad gas reserves certification and its authenticity would determine whether or not the $3 billion project is feasible. The committee has not met for the past 11 months owing to non-availability of this certification, though it is required to meet on a quarterly basis. Pakistan has been insisting for the past 20 months that certified reserves were a must for the progress of the project.

Sources said the gas pipeline politics had taken a new turn following advice by the United States to India not to pursue gas import plans from Iran. Following these statements by the US officials, Pakistan has started pursuing alternative gas import options from Turkmenistan and Qatar.

An official delegation would visit Doha on April 24-25 to attend a technical committee meeting with Qatar and Sharjah-based Crescent Petroleum to pursue the Qatar-Pakistan pipeline project. Pakistan has been asking Qatar to increase its throughput from 1.6 billion cubic feet (BCF) to 2BCF, but Doha has not given a commitment to this effect yet.