Pakistan is very much rich in all sorts of natural resource and God has blessed us with awesome way. We have still yet untouched oil and gas reserves under the barren mountains of Balochistan and the sands of Sindh – we have coal, estimated at 175 billion tons. If the natural gas we found in Sui could have been used for power generation projects, there would have been no such phenomenon of ‘loadshedding’, and we would have been immensely developed. But unfortunately due to poor planning and ideas, we are unable to get proper energy and gas supplies for our daily use also. To overcome the gas crisis from Pakistan, the Government of Pakistan should attract foreign direct investment (FDI) in the gas sector and also focus to complete the following gas projects.
TAPI
The $10 billion mega project, known as Turkmenistan-Pakistan-Afghanistan-India (TAPI), will connect Central Asia with South Asia and is predicted to complete in 2020. The 1,814-kilometer pipeline would carry a predicted 33 billion cubic meters of natural gas yearly for the next 30 years from the world’s 4th-largest reserves in Turkmenistan. The economic experts mention that India and Pakistan would buy almost 14 billion cubic meters each, while the remaining 5 billion would go to Afghanistan. The Government of Pakistan must affirm solidarity with Afghanistan to churn out policies to curb terrorism and welcome peace and prosperity for regional development.
Pakistan must prioritize and understand the need of energy security in their country and need to take optimistic strides for not only the development of the regional states but the people of their own country in a big way.
The economic experts also mention that the Pakistan-India nexus through TAPI project need to repair the strained relations since decades the political clout of India-Pakistan and Afghanistan Pakistan need to rethink to create positive notes for the betterment of the region and for the people. TAPI is one of the most significant regional projects that will address the energy needs of Pakistan and India. Afghanistan’s role is critical as the pipeline is to mostly pass through the Afghan territory. Peace and security can only be determined by the neighboring states counting Pakistan and India need to play a constructive role and it will be a win-win situation for all the three countries that will bring forth long term political and economic dependency between the three states.
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| PAKISTAN: FDI INFLOWS IN OIL & GAS | |
|---|---|
| Fiscal Year | ($ Million) |
| 2008-09 | 775 |
| 2009-10 | 740.6 |
| 2010-11 | 512.2 |
| 2011-12 | 629.4 |
| 2012-13 | 559.6 |
| 2013-14 | 502 |
| 2014-15 | 300.5 |
| 2015-16 | 248.9 |
| 2016-17 | 157.6 |
| 2017-18 (Jul-Jan) | 119.8 |
IP-gas pipe line
The Peace pipeline known as Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project (IP gas pipeline) worth $7.5 billion has been discussed for years. The 2,700 kilometer-long pipeline is meant to deliver gas from the Assalouyeh Energy Zone in southwestern Iran to Pakistan. Iran has already completed the construction of its section of the pipeline from the South Pars field to Pakistani border. Pakistani section of the pipeline is still not ready and Islamabad explains the delay by the lack of funds. Iran is planning to export 1.5 million cubic meters (mcm) per day natural gas to the country.
The federal government of Pakistan was not moving ahead on the IP gas pipeline project due to multilateral and unilateral sanctions imposed on Iran. The economic experts mentioned that multilateral sanctions were imposed by the United Nations while the unilateral sanctions were imposed by the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and the European Union. It is also mentioned that the unilateral sanctions imposed by the US were the most severe amongst all international sanctions — Iran Sanctions Act 1996, Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability and Divestment Act 2010 and National Defence Authorization Act 2012.
Presently it is noted that Iran has held its end of the bargain by taking the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline to the Pakistani border, but Pakistan has not yet taken any action in this regard. The Government of Pakistan is informed if Pakistan doesn’t take necessary actions in this regard Iran has no choice but to take legal actions.