Posted on 05/11/2008 8:58:50 PM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
NEW DELHI: For a government struggling to make sense of an Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline that is more loaded with political baggage than it is comfortable with, there now appears an attractive alternative.
For the past couple of months, a project for a deepwater pipeline has been presented to key ministries in the government which has been greeted with relief and excitement. Senior officials of MEA, ministry of oil and gas, power and fertiliser have been introduced to this private sector project that goes something like this.
It’s a deepwater pipeline from the Middle East (which has the greatest concentration of gas) to India (the closest and biggest market) at over 3,000 metres under the sea, coming from a point in Oman to a point in western India. Deepwater technology, which was first tried out in Blue Stream, has now become cheaper and easily available, particularly after the success of the Mardi Gras pipeline in the Gulf of Mexico.
The pipeline will be like an "energy corridor" or a "gas bridge" rather like a toll highway where India can get gas from a number of suppliers (Iran, Oman, Qatar, maybe Iraq at some later date) and merely use the pipeline as a piece of infrastructure. It can be used by governments, or private sector.
Most important, the pipeline, which is slated to be built by 2012, will cost much less than the overland pipeline.
This project is generating interest in the government because the Iran pipeline is now too laden with politics for it to make any economic sense. Labelled a "peace pipeline", it’s now looked at more for its potential to bring peace between Iran, Pakistan and India than to get gas for an energy-hungry India.
Of course, the government has even let the communists dabble in this — Left leaders have made this a litmus test for India’s foreign policy.
Indian officials and experts are not asking genuine questions or raising legitimate concerns on the land pipeline — questions like supply assurances, coverage of political risk, pricing, transit security etc — without being made to sound as if they were putting India’s foreign policy at risk or that India was being "pressured" by the US.
It was after a lot of effort that the government articulated to Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad one of its core concerns — assured gas supplies. Similarly, if the deepwater option is now being projected at $4 billion, why should the land pipeline cost $7 billion?
Consequently, an alternative like a deepwater pipeline project is a huge relief. For one, it’s politically neutral, and to be built by an international consortium. There are few issues of the risks of travelling over unsafe territory.
By diversifying sources, it mitigates the risk of one supplier holding India hostage over prices and supplies. Third, sabotage risks to deepwater pipelines are almost non-existent. Fourth, the technology is available, cheaper and more amenable to gathering international finance and international insurance, which is proving to be an issue for the overland pipeline.
Pakistan can also become an independent stakeholder by drawing a tertiary pipeline, and India will be freed from the security issues of running a pipeline through Pakistan.
Who in their right mind would build a pipe line through Pakistan? (India would be absolutely bonkers to do so)
And why do so when a cheaper and safer to use another route?
It’s a no brainer.
India eyes underwear pipeline from Oman.
THAT woke me up.
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