US-SAUDI PIPELINES.

The presidents of the US UNOCAL and Saudi Arabia’s Delta companies are cited as saying that they are forming a consortium to build two transcontinental pipelines, with Turkmenistan being a key to both projects. The first envisages construction of a pipeline to export Turkmenistan’s gas via Afghanistan to a Pakistani terminal on the Indian Ocean; the pipeline’s planned throughput capacity is 20 billion cubic meters annually. The second project, reportedly already approved in principle by Russia, Turkmenistan, and Pakistan, envisages construction of a pipeline to pump Siberian oil via Turkmenistan and Afghanistan, also to a Pakistani port on the Indian ocean; that pipeline’s capacity is projected at 750,000 barrels daily. (13)

Tajikistan.