Construction of gas and oil pipelines in Asia and Africa
The Iranian government has called on Pakistan to complete part of the delayed gas pipeline construction between the two countries. It’s a multi-billion-dollar project that was halted in 2014 when the US opposed pipeline construction, saying it could violate sanctions imposed on Tehran over work on its nuclear program. Iran has already invested $2 billion in its part of the project.
According to the Benin authorities, sanctions imposed on neighbouring Niger by the regional bloc of West African states (ECOWAS) concerning the military coup did not affect work on an oil pipeline connecting the two countries but could delay the project. Backed by PetroChina Company Limited, the pipeline will connect the Agadem oil field in Niger and the port of Cotonou in Benin. The total value of the pipeline investments, with a length of almost 2,000 km, is estimated at USD 4 billion.
Iraq is considering renovating a more than 70-year-old pipeline that runs through neighbouring Syria to export oil from the Mediterranean port of Baniyas to Europe and elsewhere. The pipeline, commissioned in 1952, connected the Iraqi Kirkuk oil fields to a port in northwestern Syria and operated for many years before being severely damaged during the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. Meanwhile, Kazakhstan’s national oil carrier KazTransOil JSC delivered 21.3 million tons of oil via the central pipeline system in the first six months of 2023, i.e. 1.3 million tons more than in the same period last year.
