The Afghanistan Oil Pipeline was a project proposed by several oil companies to transport oil from Turkmenistan and Central Asia through Afghanistan to Pakistan and India.
Pipeline Project History
In the 1990s, the American Unocal Corporation considered building a Template:Convert Template:Bbl to t oil pipeline to link Turkmenistan's Türkmenabat (former Chardzou) to India along the Arabian Sea, providing a possible alternative export route to the Omsk (Russia) – Pavlodar (Kasakhstan) – Shymkent – Türkmenabat Pipeline. The pipeline was expected to cost US$2.5 billion. However, due to political and security instability at that time, the project was put on hold. But, the plan was later revived after the United States-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.[1]
Some have proposed that the actual motive for the United States-led Western invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 was Afghanistan's importance as a conduit for oil pipelines to Afghanistan's neighbouring countries, by effectively bypassing Russian and Iranian territories, and breaking the Russian and Iranian collective monopoly on regional energy supplies.[2] Others have argued that the theoretical pipeline was not a significant reason for the invasion because most Western governments and their respective oil companies preferred an export route that went through the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan then to Georgia and on to the Black Sea instead of one that goes through Afghanistan. [3]
In 2018, Afghanistan broke ground on the 1,127-mile-long Afghanistan oil pipeline that will connect the state of Punjab in northern India with the Galkynysh gas field in the desert in eastern Turkmenistan. Once energy starts to flow, the country of Afghanistan expects about $400 million a year in transit fees, partly offsetting some of the international aid that now props up the government.[1]
The United States is backing the pipeline, which will carry 33 billion cubic meters of gas per year, passing through five southern Afghan provinces — Herat, Farah, Nimruz, Helmand and Kandahar — that have been Taliban strongholds, and a major security concern. However, both the Taliban and Pakistan, a country believed to hold sway over the insurgent group, have pledged support.[1]
At an estimated cost of US$10 billion,[4] an Isle of Man-based holding company will oversee the project with Turkmengaz, a Turkmenistan state company. Turkmenistan officials have also said that they have received loans from Saudi Arabia’s Islamic Development Bank. The pipeline is expected to be completed by 2020.[1]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Afghanistan Breaks Ground on Pipeline Andrew E. Kramer, The New York Times, February 23rd, 2018.
- ↑ Pipe Dreams. Slate(2001-12-06).
- ↑ Afghanistan: the pipeline war?(2001-10-29).
- ↑ Gas Pipeline War by Ayaz Gul, Voice of America, May 19th, 2018.