All the way to Fazilka

After much delay, the TAPI (Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India) gas project got the go-ahead from leaders of the four countries, including Vice President Hamid Ansari and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, at a ceremony on Sunday. The project brings together nations that share difficult relations with each other. The 1,800 km gas pipe is to pass through some of the most risky and unstable places in Afghanistan and Balochistan before delivering gas at Fazilka. Sabotage threats had held up the project, earlier scheduled for commissioning in 2016. Also, there was a proposal earlier to rope in a multinational firm with experience of executing such multi-country projects. Since none was forthcoming on acceptable terms, the four nations have decided to lay the “peace pipeline”, as it is called, on their own.

A steep fall in oil and natural gas prices have forced producer countries like Turkmenistan, Kazakhastan and Russia to explore new markets. In India, on the other hand, the ever-rising demand for energy has forced the government to tap all available sources apart from pushing domestic production. In July Prime Minister Modi visited the Central Asian nations of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan in a bid to beef up India’s energy security. Sunday’s ground-breaking deal is the result of that effort.

The success of the TAPI project should pave the way for the revival of the long-pending gas pipeline deal with Iran. Apart from safety concerns of the pipeline that has to pass through Pakistan, Western sanctions against Iran had delayed this project. After signing the civil nuclear deal with the US, India too lost interest in the project. However, in the changed scenario, with the US and Iran burying their differences, the gas deal should be back in the reckoning. It is in India's interest. After the US, China and Russia, India has emerged as the world's fourth biggest energy consumer that imports 80 per cent of its crude and 30 per cent of its natural gas requirements. The sharp decline in energy prices has made it a buyers' market and strengthened India's negotiating power for energy deals.