Gas pipeline from Gulf to India feasible: Expert

DUBA: A deepwater pipeline designed to transport large quantities of natural gas 'economically' from the Gulf region to India, straight across the Indian Ocean is now feasible, an expert has said.

"The economics of SAGE deepwater pipeline system are attractive and the risks are now demonstrably low", Peter Roberts, technical director of South Asia Gas Enterprise (SAGE), said at the 13th Annual Middle East Gas Summit in Doha on Thursday.

The depth of the Indian Ocean along this route was beyond the economic pipe-lay limit until the mid-1990s, when the enabling technology was developed and a deepwater Code of Design Practice was issued to the industry, Roberts who was quoted by the Peninsula Daily, said.

Every year since then, pipe has been laid into deeper and deeper water, past 2000 metres depth and now up to around 3000m, following the progress of the oil and gas industry into new areas further offshore, Roberts said.

The target installation date for the SAGE pipeline, just past the turn of the decade, will see the industry working at depths beyond the 3,500m that the SAGE line reaches. "This, indeed, is a project whose time has come," he said.

The 13th Annual Middle East Gas Summit concluded here yesterday with the final sessions devoted to prospects of liquefied natural gas and gas projects from the Middle East.