Oil and Gas Pipeline Watch

Iran seeks gas protections in case of war

Iran has asked Pakistan to sign an amendment to gas deals for a major pipeline that includes legal protections for supplies should Iran face military attack.

The force majeure clause would protect Tehran from legal consequences should India or Pakistan face gas disruptions through the proposed 1,659-mile Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline.

Tehran asked Islamabad to include the phrase "situation of armed conflicts or war" as a substitute for "act of war." The new language covers state-centric military conflict rather than internal issues exclusively, the Pakistani Daily Times reported.

Legal advisers to the deal have told Islamabad the provision should be considered, but all parties to the pipeline will have to negotiate on the effects to the Gas Sales Purchasing Agreement.

Pakistan is facing a looming energy crisis as its domestic resources are nearly exhausted. If a gas deal were implemented, Iran could begin shipping natural gas from its South Pars field by 2013.

U.S.-financed Peruvian pipeline to be built

A New York-based equity firm announced Monday it would begin construction on a 700-mile natural gas pipeline through Peru in 2010.

Kuntur Transportadora de Gas, a subsidiary of Conduit Capital, signed a deal Monday with the Peruvian government to construct the $1.4 billion pipeline from the Camisea gas field in the Amazon rain forest, The Financial Times reported.

The Conduit Capital subsidiary targets its investments on the private electric sector in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Samuel Gomez with Kuntur said the project will provide a major boost to the economy of the region, especially southern regions plagued with poverty.

"The south is the most economically deprived area in the country, and in addition to the pipeline we could see billions of dollars of incremental investment, including petrochemical plants, power plants and cement plants," he said.

The Camisea gas field has experienced environmental setbacks and concerns over infrastructure. Surveyors complain several pipes used at the field are severely corroded, contributing to five spills at the site since 2006.

EC wants swift action on Nabucco

The European Commission revealed plans to approach Turkey and Georgia over remaining issues surrounding the planned Nabucco gas pipeline by the end of the year.

Ferran Tarradellas, spokesman for the executive branch of the European Union, said Europe wanted to take appropriate steps to implement the project to bring gas from Central Asia to Europe through Turkey as soon as possible.

The members to the Nabucco pipeline consortium plan to hold an international symposium on the project in Budapest in January with construction expected to begin in the spring, Europe's EMportal said.

The Western-backed Nabucco project will stretch over 2,000 miles from Central Asia. It is seen as a means of diversifying the European energy market away from Russia. It is expected to transport 1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas per year starting in 2012.

Russia has responded by pushing the South Stream natural gas pipeline through the Black Sea to Bulgaria.

Gazprom expects large capacity in East

Russian energy giant Gazprom said its eastern Sakhalin-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok gas pipeline will have a maximum capacity of around 1 trillion cubic feet.

Gazprom officials said preliminary estimates of the project in the eastern Sakhalin Island suggest it would have an initial capacity of 35.3 billion cubic feet of gas by 2011.

Viktor Timoshilov, head of eastern development with Gazprom, said supplies from several exploration blocks in the region will link up to the planned Yakutia-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok pipeline to bring natural gas from the island to the East, the Interfax news agency said.

"Construction of the branch is included in the general scheme for gasification of the region, on which work has been completed. It will be submitted to the regional authorities in the near future," he said.

The Yakutia-Khabarovsk-Vladivostok pipeline from central Russia will form part of the larger energy corridor represented by the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean oil pipeline ESPO, a planned 2,900-mile pipeline to bring resources to markets in Asia and the Pacific.

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