ISLAMABAD, Oct 18: The Asian Development Bank has submitted to Pakistan the feasibility study of the $3.2 billion Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TAP) gas pipeline project and has found it technically and economically feasible, informed sources told Dawn.

However, the quarterly meeting of the steering committee comprising petroleum ministers of the three countries scheduled to be held on Oct 15-16 has been cancelled. The next meeting is expected to be convened by the first week of December, a senior government official confirmed.

The security of the pipeline in view of volatile situation in Afghanistan still remains a big question mark, he said. The official said Pakistan had asked Turkmenistan to update certification of the reserves of Daulatabad Gas field but that was still awaited.

The ADB was earlier expected to finalize the feasibility study by the end of September for discussion by the committee in October. Since the feasibility came during the first week of October, the steering committee meeting was cancelled.

The official said commercial terms of all the three gas import options would be final by February next year and then it would be prioritized as to which project should be pursued first.

At present Pakistan is pursuing all the three options of gas import. These include gas pipeline from Qatar, Iran and Turkmenistan.

All the three pipelines have the option of carrying gas to India as well. India has not yet made it clear whether it intended to join the TAP project. Its discussions with Iran and Russian firm Gazprom are still in progress for a pipeline from Iran to India.

Islamabad believes that unless complete information on the Daulatabad gas field and its reserves are made available, no bank, independent lending institution or project sponsor would be willing to join the $3.5-billion TAP pipeline project.

Pakistan says it is difficult to back up any buyer’s guarantee for the purchase of gas in the absence of the certification of reserves and other associated guarantees on allocation to the TAP project from the government of Turkmenistan. Also no project sponsor will be willing to enter into the gas transportation agreement with Turkmenistan in the absence of the reserves certification. Pakistan has also asked Turkmenistan for the information relating to gas produced since the start of supplies from the field and the remaining recoverable reserves, information on dedication of the field reserves for any other buyer under a long-term agreement and maximum gas processing capacity installed and the date of initial installation along with current production rates of pipeline quality gas.

It also wants information relating to future plans for installing additional production capacity and time schedule to meet the project gas flow requirements in phases starting from May 2008 at about 0.6-1 bcfd (billion cubic feet per day) to 2-2.5 bcfd by 2015.

The ambassadors of some countries have started communications and meetings with the government officials to pursue the project, sources said. They said earlier around 40 companies had shown interest in the TAP project, and some of them had even sought technical details of the project.

The parties to the project have already agreed to the Southern route for the project that starts from Daulatabad to Herat-Kandahar-Quetta and Multan.

The project also envisaged gas storage facilities in Pakistan and establishment of an independent security agency to take care of the 1,700-km gas pipeline.

India currently required 5-6 billion cubic feet (bcf) per day of gas and the market would be growing even further. This indicated that perhaps India would be needing gas intakes from both the pipelines, including from Iran and Turkmenistan.

The trans-Afghanistan Turkmen pipeline promises substantial amounts of royalty and security fees to Afghanistan, long-term guaranteed gas supplies to Pakistan and of course gas sales revenues to Turkmenistan, besides chain generation of economic activity throughout the region.

Ashkabad has been indicating that the Daulatabad field had total reserves of 45 tcf, of which remaining recoverable reserves stood at 23 tcf. At a rate of 15 million cubic feet per day supply to India or Pakistan, this gas was sufficient for 30 years.