Muneeb ur Rehman

The proposed Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project, if materialised, will play a crucial role in facilitating the provision of sustainable natural gas supplies to industries, effectively addressing energy shortages and promoting the diversification of Pakistan's energy market. Talking to WealthPK, Zeeshan Zaidi, manager of external communications at Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL), expressed the hope that the TAPI project would help resolve the long-standing supply-side energy shortages that industries have been grappling with for several decades. According to the Pakistan Energy Outlook Report 2021-2030, over the past five years, natural gas production has experienced a negative cumulative average growth rate (CAGR) of 5%.

This has resulted in a decline in natural gas production from 4,016 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) in 2015 to 3,689 mmcfd in 2020. If this trend continues, future projections indicate that gas production will further decrease to 2,819 mmcfd by 2025 and eventually reach 2,181 mmcfd by 2030. Pakistan's industries face a lack of competitiveness in comparison to regional countries due to the soaring energy prices in the country. The shortage of natural gas has resulted in the closure of numerous industrial units.

“The TAPI project holds great promise as it will address the excessive demand for natural gas in industries while also granting them a competitive advantage in terms of per-unit charges for natural gas,” said Zeeshan Zaidi. According to Minister of State for Petroleum Dr Musadik Malik, the TAPI project is aimed at importing 13.8 billion cubic meters of gas from Turkmenistan in order to fulfil Pakistan's escalating energy needs. The pipeline extends approximately 1,600 kilometres, starting from the border of Turkmenistan and reaching all the way to the border between Pakistan and India. Zeeshan Zaidi mentioned that the dependence on natural gas imports ‘has been shaped by our own misplaced priorities’.

“With its abundant natural landscape, the country possesses significant potential to achieve self-sufficiency in natural gas production, catering not only to commercial needs but also to domestic consumption. The unexplored natural gas sites in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces deserve the attention of the government,” he noted. He pointed out that energy supply mix in Pakistan was heavily dominated by natural gas, accounting for 33.1% of the total.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk