Posted on 08/27/2021 3:14:34 AM PDT by EBH
IFP- While Iranian officials maintain that it is unlikely the Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India (TAPI) pipeline project becomes operational, Saudi Arabia has pledged to provide its investment and Taliban militants vowed to secure it.
Taliban Spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the militants are ready to guarantee the security of TAPI Pipeline.
Attending a ceremony to launch the project, he added Taliban is ready to secure the pipeline because it is a good project for Afghanistan’s economy, a report by the Persian-language Fars News Agency said.
This comes as Hamid Reza Araqi, the CEO of Iran’s National Gas Company, says he is not optimistic about the future of the project.
He said Tehran has expressed its preparedness to help Turkmenistan export its gas to Pakistan through Iran, but Ashgabat has yet to provide a response.
He noted that given Iran’s geographical location, the country can take part in any pipeline project in the region.
“Even if the project is accomplished within the next ten years, it’s not clear yet how its finance and security are set to be provided,” he noted.
Similar pessimism was also expressed last year by Bijan Zanganeh, Iran’s Oil Minister.
The TAPI project was launched earlier this year in a ceremony attended by officials from Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and India. It is expected to connect Dowlatabad Gas field in Turkmenistan to Herat and Kandahar in Afghanistan, Quetta in Pakistan and Multan in India.
It seems the project has been launched as a rival to the controversial Peace Pipeline also known as Iran-Pakistan (IP). It is expected to transfer 90 M3 gas.
Now as the Iranian officials are pessimistic about the future of TAPI project, Saudi Arabia as well as its regional allies have expressed their readiness to take part in the project provided that Iran is left out. This will cut Iran’s access to East Asian markets.
Over the past years, Iran has not taken seriously East Asian countries as an export target. This has turned the countries into a good target for other gas exporters.
Experts say if Iran takes advantage of its bargaining power, it can export its gas to the East Asian market at a reasonable price.
In an address to the launching ceremony of TAPI project, Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani expressed hope that the future generations of Afghanistan would take full advantage of the project to promote their economy and security.
Pakistan and Afghanistan which used to be among the main importers of Iran’s gas are now putting much efforts into TAPI project.
Experts say the ground is now prepared for the countries to import gas in less than four years.
Despite earlier agreement between Iran and Pakistan to establish the Peace Pipeline, the latter announced it does not have money to invest in the project. So, the Iranian side allocated a $500m loan to Pakistan to complete its side of the pipeline. With the taking office of the new government in Iran, the new Oil Minister Zanganeh refused to give the loan to Pakistan. This partly prompted Pakistan to move towards TAPI project.
Meanwhile, in 2010, the US asked Pakistan to abandon the pipeline project. By cancelling the project, Pakistan would receive assistance from the US for the construction of a liquefied natural gas terminal.
Now experts warn that with the new developments, if Iran remains passive, it will be left out of TAPI project forever.
https://youtu.be/fc6QuU9_XtI
Proposed Gas Pipeline TAPI and IPI (Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India) Length 4:26
In this video you will get information about Proposed Gas Pipeline TAPI and IPI. where I have mentioned map of TAPI and IPI. Hopefully, it will be beneficial for those who have interest in geography.
Proposed Gas Pipeline Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India (TAPI)
Proposed Gas Pipeline Iran, Pakistan, India (IPI)
Nice pipeline you have there…
Could China become the Taliban’s new benefactor?
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/could-china-become-the-talibans-new-benefactor/
Back on the map
A stable Afghanistan is pivotal to any plans connecting landlocked Central Asian economies—Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan—to Pakistani and Indian ports in the Arabian Sea. The Taliban’s victory could provide some of that stability, as it is already a major player (mainly as the provider of security) in the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline project.
Meanwhile, China is planning to expand its BRI to Afghanistan to boost its influence there as the United States withdraws. Beijing is currently building a road through the Wakhan Corridor, a thin strip of land connecting China’s Xinjiang province to Afghanistan, in order to complement the existing road network it built throughout Pakistan and Central Asia as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a key component of the BRI.
Until now, the close relationship between the United States and the Afghan government deterred Kabul’s full participation in the BRI. But the Taliban will have no such reservations: The group’s spokesman, Suhail Shaheen, has said “China is a friendly country and we welcome it for reconstruction and developing Afghanistan.” More stability could put the country back on the map as a major trade route in the region, leading to increased Chinese investment in the trade infrastructure of the country as part of its broader BRI initiative or other projects.
China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) (一带一路) is a strategy initiated by the People’s Republic of China that seeks to connect Asia with Africa and Europe via land and maritime networks with the aim of improving regional integration, increasing trade and stimulating economic growth.
The name was coined in 2013 by China’s President Xi Jinping, who drew inspiration from the concept of the Silk Road established during the Han Dynasty 2,000 years ago – an ancient network of trade routes that connected China to the Mediterranean via Eurasia for centuries. The BRI has also been referred to in the past as ‘One Belt One Road’.
The BRI comprises a Silk Road Economic Belt – a trans-continental passage that links China with south east Asia, south Asia, Central Asia, Russia and Europe by land – and a 21st century Maritime Silk Road, a sea route connecting China’s coastal regions with south east and south Asia, the South Pacific, the Middle East and Eastern Africa, all the way to Europe.
The initiative defines five major priorities:
policy coordination;
infrastructure connectivity;
unimpeded trade;
financial integration;
and connecting people.
The BRI has been associated with a very large programme of investments in infrastructure development for ports, roads, railways and airports, as well as power plants and telecommunications networks. Since 2019, Chinese state-led BRI lending volumes have been in decline. The BRI now places increasing emphasis on “high quality investment”, including through greater use of project finance, risk mitigation tools, and green finance.
The BRI is an increasingly important umbrella mechanism for China’s bilateral trade with BRI partners: as of March 2020, the number of countries that have joined the Belt and Road Initiative by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with China is 138.
https://www.ebrd.com/what-we-do/belt-and-road/overview.html
As of January 2021, the number of countries that have joined the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with China is 140*.
https://green-bri.org/countries-of-the-belt-and-road-initiative-bri
What we have is a severely compromised President and thus what we see happening right now is exactly what Former President Trump needed to know about. Not from an election standpoint, but from a foreign policy standpoint.
Now connect the dots.
and the woke Taliban 2.0 were holed up in Qatar:
Worldometers: Qatar Natural Gas
(Data shown is for 2015, the latest year with complete data in all categoreies)
Qatar holds 858 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of proven gas reserves as of 2017, ranking 3rd in the world and accounting for about 12% of the world’s total natural gas reserves of 6,923 Tcf...
https://www.worldometers.info/gas/qatar-natural-gas/#:~:text=Qatar%20holds%20858%20trillion%20cubic,609.2%20times%20its%20annual%20consumption.
the climate crowd’s plan was only to kill off coal; natural gas was considered “green”, but lately the climate zealots have been demanding the end of gas as well. good luck with that.
some of Hunter Biden’s shenanigans involve gas, unsurprisinglyh.
They must kick Biden out or he’d close down their pipeline.
Instead of “nation building” free of charge, we should take over these countries and make them “protectorates”, like a colony.
We get reimbursed through operating projects like these and collecting taxes, while the locals get their act in gear and do their own nation building. We just provide security, while raking in the cash, and leave when they’re ready to take over.
They will be highly motivated to do so when they realize they would then get their hands on that cash. Without that, it’s a shoulder shrug.
Just need to ignore those “no blood for oil” folks.
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