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Expert: TAPI is important component of Central Asia’s political infrastructure

Oil&Gas Materials 14 March 2013 17:49 (UTC +04:00)
An attempt to lay a Trans-Asian gas pipeline from the Caspian Sea shores to the Indian Ocean (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India - TAPI) is not just "great energy policy", but also a great policy in the region, Yuri Sigov, Washington based political analyst and expert believes.

Kazakhstan, Astana, March 14 / Trend, D. Mukhtarov/

An attempt to lay a Trans-Asian gas pipeline from the Caspian Sea shores to the Indian Ocean (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India - TAPI) is not just "great energy policy", but also a great policy in the region, Yuri Sigov, Washington based political analyst and expert believes.

"When constructing new oil and gas pipelines, each Central Asian state becomes not only a receiver or transit country of raw materials, but also, it automatically turns into an influential political player - and not only to its nearest geographical neighbors, but also in a global context," Yuri Sigov wrote in an e-mail to Trend on Thursday.

Sigov reminded that the presence of a variety of energy routes for the delivery of hydrocarbons from Central Asia is a question that has concerned the leaders of all countries of the region since the time of independence, even if there is no oil and gas for large-scale exports in the countries (Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan).

"The TAPI project is designed to supply Turkmen gas (later other countries in the region will be able to contribute) through Afghanistan and Pakistan to India. It is an undertaking, concerning not only Turkmenistan and not so much it and its gas policy as the most important component of the entire political infrastructure, emerging now in Central Asia," Sigov said.

He also said that negotiations on this project have been underway for at least 15 years (for the first time this idea was put forward by former Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov), and interest in it then gradually faded over the years, and then suddenly resumed very actively.

"Of course, special attention was paid to the TAPI after the operation of the U.S. Army and its allies in Afghanistan. And now, when the presence of coalition forces in this long-suffering country ends, the idea to transfer Turkmen gas to India is again at the center of the "energy agenda" of entire Asia," Sigov said.

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