Monday, June 04, 2012 -
The South Asian country of Bangladesh has voiced interest in joining the trans-regional TAPI natural gas pipeline project, media outlets reported last week.
Planners of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline envisaged pumping 33 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas per year from one of the world’s largest gas fields, located in Central Asia, to Pakistan and India.
But energy-starved Bangladesh recently approached the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the primary financier of the $7.6 billion project, to opt in, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported on Thursday.
"We need gas from sources outside the country as our own reserve is apparently dwindling" despite initiatives to explore hydrocarbon in the offshore blocks of Bay of Bengal, a senior Energy Ministry official told the Pakistani newspaper Financial Express, according to PTI.
"Our interest in such a project will continue to grow as long as gas shortage persists in the country."
The pipeline would transport natural gas 1,056 miles from the Dauletabad field in Turkmenistan to India, via Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Bangladeshi government sources said that it would have to be lengthened by another 440 miles to link up with the country’s national gas network.
He said experts agree the extension is technically feasible.