Gassy Dreams

http://www.rferl.org/specials/gallery/ca-pipelines/Natural-gas-pipeline.gif

Turkmenistan, a land-locked country, has the 4th largest natural gas reserves in the world. This fact has done little for their economy because transporting the gas out of the country poses an expensive and risky venture. Currently they are able to pipe gas out through Russia, but that leaves them entirely dependent--and undesirable situation to say the least.

One year ago, on Feb 14th, 2006 officials from Pakistan, Iran, and Turkmenistan met to discuss building a pipeline that could benefit all three struggling countries. This pipeline has been a pipe dream since the 90's when the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. A portion of the proposed pipeline would cross Afghanistan soil, and with the volatility and lack of security it was too risky to pursue. With continued issues in Afghanistan, even after the "fall" of the Taliban--there is still not enough security to follow through with the proposal.

http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/02/b8cadc86-b102-44ea-bce5-6d68c87b6ec9.html

This proposed pipeline has yet to become a reality. The death of Saparmurat Niyazov (the Turkmenistan Leader) has thrown this deal up in the air. Other pipelines were considered to cross Turkey heading to Europe, but with the EU and Turkey relations it remains an iffy idea.

Turkmenistan is the 2nd largest natural gas producer in Central Asia, 2nd only to Russia. Russia is also unsure of what will happen now. Russia and Turkmenistan had just signed a 3 year agreement on gas exports into Russia, who then sells the gas in lucrative markets taking the majority of the profit for themselves. Will the new leader maintain the agreement recently signed, or will they follow a different path. With politics up in the air it remains to be seen as of yet.

Here are some excellent articles on the subject:

http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/12/080C63AE-3F1D-4460-A2DC-E43EC7472CAB.html

http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/12/37535B5A-B825-49B1-8F17-863414835E50.html