Afghanistan Oil Pipeline


The Afghanistan Oil Pipeline was a project proposed by several oil companies to transport oil from Azerbaijan and Central Asia through Afghanistan to Pakistan and India.

Central Asian Oil Pipeline Project

In the 1990s, the American Unocal Corporation considered in addition to the Trans-Afghanistan Gas Pipeline building also a oil pipeline to link Turkmenistan's Türkmenabat to India along the Arabian Sea. Through the Omsk – Pavlodar – Shymkent – Türkmenabat Pipeline, it would provide a possible alternative export route for regional oil production from the Caspian Sea. The pipeline was expected to cost US$2.5 billion. However, due to political and security instability, this project was dismissed.

Disputed theory

Some critics have proposed that the actual motive for the Western invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 was Afghanistan's importance as a conduit for oil pipelines from Azerbaijan to Afghanistan's neighbouring countries. Others have argued that the theoretical pipeline was not a significant reason for the invasion because most Western governments and their respective oil companies prefer an export route. This route goes through the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan then to Georgia and on to the Black Sea instead of one that goes through Afghanistan. Bypassing Russian and Iranian territories would break their collective monopoly on regional energy supplies.