We may all dream of a green future with no fossil fuels, but for the immediate future natural gas will take up an increasing portion of our energy mix, if we are to phase out coal.
As the gas production of Europe is set to plateau and decline along with growing demand in Asia, Russia seems well placed to become the gatekeeper of Central Asian gas. Avoiding total dependence on Russia seems to be a goal of its supplying neighbors and its downstream customers.
A long held dream of transporting gas from Turkmenistan to western and eastern customers seems to finally be coming to fruition, with a completion scheduled for 2014. Note that the line goes through Afghanistan, which suggests some hope for a peaceful resolution with the Taliban or a permanent security presence along the length of the pipeline, some of which is to be placed below ground.
Turkmenistan alone holds the fourth largest gas reserves in the world and its neighbors including Iran hold equally significant reserves. It will be interesting to follow how Iranian gas reserves will be ignored behind trade sanctions in the long term.
The pipeline will move gas to the energy dependent regions of Pakistan and India, with a potential alternative market by going to the Pakistani port of Gwadar where from LNG can be transported.
This one pipeline is hardly enough for Europe to avoid dependence on Russia, but it suggests that Brussels and Washington are determined to ensure a measure of independence in its future energy mix.
Source
Russian gas pipelines to Europe
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