From: gnreddy@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (G.Narotham Reddy)
Subject: Asian gas pipeline can help solve the energy crisis in India
Organization: AT&T
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 13:43:58 GMT


Asian Gas Pipeline - A Pipe Dream 

This ambitious project, if it really comes into being, can help solve
the energy crisis in India to a great extent.

If it is ever executed, it may rank as the largest singe project in
the country: a gas pipeline extending for 3,300 km across South Asia,
originating at the southern coast of Iran and marking its way to
Calcutta in eastern India at a staggering cost of $11.75 billion.  The
Asian gas pipeline will certainly ease the country's energy deficit
which is acute at present and will deteriorate further over the years.
India imports 450,000 billion barrels per day of oil that absorbs a
quarter of country's hard currency earnings and is almost double the
trade deficit.
	The pipeline from Iran could supply India with 70 million cubic
meters of gas a day.  This will make an additional 9,000 tonnes of oil
equivalent available per day.
	
Preliminary Stage:

The project has not yet progressed beyond the preliminary modelling
exercise and was first presented by Ali Shams Ardekani, the Iranian
Deputy Minister of mines, at a conference of the International
Association of Energy Economics two years ago.  Since then, Iran has
pushed the project with some enthusiasm and it is believed to be one
of the issues that were discussed during the recent visit of the
Iranian Deputy Prime Minister.
	At first glance, the project appears ambitious.  Creating an
infrastructure of such magnitude would need the simultaneous
coordination of three countries that could be difficult.  India's only
previous experience in executing a gas pipeline has been the HBJ
project that stretches for about a third the length and is a fifth
capacity of the proposed pipeline at a cost of Rs 1,700 crore.
	There will be the inevitable problems associated with money,
technology selection, land acquisition and finally the apprehension
that the pipeline will pass through Pakistan.  The last may be the
biggest stumbling block. "To expect supplies through Pakistan to be
secure is far-fetched."  says a government official.  But the European
gas pipeline that carries natural gas from Siberia across the European
continent to Italy is sufficient proof that a project of such magnitude 
may be possible.
	To tide over the energy crisis, India has to increase its
energy generation by 250 times, according to the Oil India chairman
C.Ratna.  He says, "Highly developed countries use 170 kwh of energy
of all kinds per day per capita.  If the country's population
stablizes at one billion over the next century and assuming that we can
do with a third of what the developed countries use, then we need to
produce energy of all kinds at a rate of about 25 million MW per annum
versus 0.1 million MW today."  Clearly an enormous task.

In Iran the pipeline will begin with a capacity of 100 million
cu.m/day with a domestic intake of 10 million cu.m.day, pass on into
Pakistan, which will take away 20-25 million cu.m/day leaving about 70
million du.m/day to India.
	Ardekani's model did not attempt to predict the price at which
natural gas from the pipeline will sell. "The production and gathering
facilities will have different price tags depending on the choice of
the field, its onshore/offshore status, its distance to Bandar Abbas
and the natural gas liquid content of the mix", he claimed at the
conference.  But P.K. Pachauri, director of the Tata Energy Research
Institute, say that gas prices will  be tied to the international
price of crude and will remain below it.
	Components of this project would include the gas gathering
system from the fields, a gas processing system, and the pipeline
system.  It is estimated that six compressor stations will be required
for the Iran section, 7 for Pakistan and 17 in India with each
station possessing a compression capacity of 100,000 hp.  The cost
estimate is based on the pipeline sizes and compression horsepower.

Pipeline costs:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
			Iran		Pakistan	India
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Diameter		56'		52'		46'
Length			750km		960km		1600km
No of compressor
stations		6		7		17
Total HP installed	600,000		700,000		1,275,000
Cost of Pipeline
and station		2,500 M		2,700 M		4,200 M

Adjusted Total Cost	3,250 M		4,300 M		4,200 M

* Arif Sharif in Business India 

			      * E N D *