Free Republic

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...

Japan, the third world economy, has virtually no gas and oil reserves. The situation is somewhat paradoxical since no country can prosper without oil and gas. Thus, the Land of the Rising Sun has been successfully coping with the situation by importing oil in tankers from the Middle East, liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia and that same Middle East. Japan also needs coal for its CHP plants, which it purchases from Australia, Indonesia and China. Recently the country held its hopes high for nuclear power industry. After the tragedy at Fukushima 1 in 2011, however, nuclear power...

“With a subtle motion of the hand”, China took away the Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India (TAPI) pipeline project from the USA and became yesterday the chief controller of gas resources in Central and South Asia. Somebody else’s ideas and plans have been expropriated by means of contract for sale of 25 billion cubic meters of gas per year concluded between State Concern Turkmengas and Chinese Company CNPC. The deal will increase the total volume of Turkmen gas supplied to China up to 65 billion cubic meters. At the same time, the agreement is achieved on the planned new direction of Turkmenistan–China pipeline (D...