ISLAMABAD, July 13: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has indicated to develop a mega project of gas pipeline network in South-Asia involving Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Iran and India.
It has pledged to fully finance and oversee the preparation of a feasibility study for trans-Afghanistan to Pakistan pipeline project besides later becoming the financier at the execution stage.
Informed sources told Dawn that these encouraging developments emerged at the meeting of Pak-Afghan-Turkmen trilateral working group on gas pipeline in Ashkabad this week. The World Bank is also believed to have assured Turkmenistan of supporting and financing the project.
Turkmenistan had also invited a five-member delegation of ADB senior economists and technical experts to discuss the pipeline issue with the three countries on the sidelines.
Pakistani delegation led by Petroleum Minister Usman Aminuddin and comprising joint secretary Khurshid Anwar and managing director Sui Southern Gas Company has returned from Ashkabad. The trilateral working group had met to discuss technical details of the pre-feasibility study of the pipeline but to the pleasant surprise of all participants the ADB offered to finance both the pre-feasibility and feasibility studies.
The sources said that ADB informed the delegates that it would provide full finance to carry out both the pre-feasibility and feasibility study of the gas pipeline from Daulatabad in Turkmenistan to Gwadar in Pakistan.
These sources said the ADB would send the draft terms of reference (TORs) of the feasibility study within the next few days for approval and then seek expressions of interest (EOIs) to appoint a consultant to carry out the feasibility.
The ADB also indicated that it could start the feasibility study by August this year so that it completed latest by July next year. Pakistan also provided its draft TORs for the study which would not be incorporated in the ADB-prepared TORs.
The study would also consider the possibility and economics of liquid natural gas (LNG) plant Gwadar and its export. The sources said that Turkmen team did not discuss the possibility of laying a parallel oil pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan and said they would take it up sometimes later.
The ADB delegation, said these sources, informed that they were working on a South-Asian regional gas pipeline network also involving Iran and India besides the aforementioned states. The meeting was told that 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.
