Russia and Pakistan have agreed about the building of a gas pipeline for deliveries to the north of the Asian country CNG and gas from the pipeline TAPI. As reports Baltnews, the project will carry the name Pakistan stream, control over it will receive Islamabad.
The Pakistan mass-media have announced that the structure of financing of the gas pipeline has been completely reconsidered. So, the share of Pakistan will increase to 74 %, and Russian will decrease to 26 %. Thus, the Russian Federation will provide only delivery of all necessary import materials.
A number of experts notice that Pakistan stream will not connect Russia and Pakistan directly. It becomes the main pipeline through which the country’s regions can receive CNG from ports and a perspective gas pipeline from Turkmenistan.
Why Russia should help Islamabad to develop a gas infrastructure for reception of fuel from competitors, Igor Yushkov, expert of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation told in the comment of Baltnews.
In the case with Pakistan that we help to develop an infrastructure for reception of gas from our competitors, actually, is positive.Yes, we will not deliver gas there ourselves.
Even if it is delivered there in the form of CNG from Sakhalin or Yamal it anyway will not make a competition to Qatar, for example.Those markets always will be strangers for us.
But nevertheless, when these markets develop, Pakistan has more and more gas, it draws to itself the fuel of other manufacturers.And thus, we reduce competition in the target markets in Europe and in the markets of Asia: China, Japan and others , Yushkov noted.
Certainly, the expert underlined, there is a question, and how much Russia will receive for the help: whether the construction will be by itself profitable.
But even from the point of view of commodity markets, once again I will underline, it is favourable for us.Here it is important to understand that we are not engaged in gas production in Pakistan, and simply we build there a gas pipeline.
Because there are other countries where our, state including, the companies are engaged in extraction of hydrocarbons, Yushkov added.
In 2015 Russia and Pakistan entered into the intergovernmental agreement on gas pipeline building North South. Its extent should make 1, 2 thousand kilometres: from the port of Karachi in the south to Lahore in the north. The capacity of the project was estimated at 12,4 billion cubic metres a year.
“North-South” provided deliveries of regasified CNG and reception of gas from the gas pipeline Turkmenistan- Afghanistan Pakistan India (TAPI) under construction.
The gas pipeline was planned to finish in 2018, however then the parties could not agree about tariffs for gas pumping, informs Baltnews.
Nury AMANOV