LAHORE: Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said after a visit to New Delhi last month that most of the outstanding differences on the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline had been resolved and that the three countries were now in a position to reach final agreement at the next round of joint talks, Irish Sun reported Sunday. In order to allay India's apprehensions, Qureshi also conveyed Pakistan's offer to guarantee the physical security of the gas pipeline.
As the pipeline will run through Pakistan's troubled Balochistan and Sindh provinces and can be easily disrupted, the moot question is this: given its unstable internal security environment, is Pakistan in a position to guarantee the security of the pipeline, the paper said. However, the risk of frequent disruptions and their impact on downstream power generation and other projects such as the manufacture of fertiliser must be weighed against India's desire to enter into viable long-term contracts for oil and gas supplies so as to ensure energy security for its growth and prosperity.
The Irish Sun reports natural gas is transported either through overland or undersea pipelines in its natural state or as liquefied natural gas (LNG) in tankers that ply on the high seas. This is a costly venture. The capital outlay that would need to be incurred would include an expenditure of $2 billion for a liquefaction unit, upwards of $200 million for each LNG tanker and $500 million for a re-gasification plant.
Though this option through Pakistan is economically the most viable, India must consider whether good economics should be allowed to be jeopardised by bad security. India must not allow the supply of a strategic resource to be held hostage to the machinations of capricious jihadi elements. Also, the Baloch people are concerned that Pakistan will not equitably share with their underdeveloped province the revenues earned from the pipeline. A new wave of vigorous insurgency has engulfed most of Balochistan and the gas pipeline is bound to be targeted.
Though the government of Pakistan has stated several times that Pakistan is willing to give a unilateral undertaking that it will not allow the disruption of the supply of gas to India, President Pervez Musharraf had admitted that his government had no control over some jihadi organisations that are responsible for internal instability in Pakistan.
http://www.thepost.com.pk/MainNewsT.aspx?bdtl_id=11648&fb_id=2&catid=14 |
