India’s 2,000 KM Undersea Gas Pipeline Plan to Bypass Strait of Hormuz | Connecting The Dots

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:03]India is reviving a 40,000 cr rupee 2,000 kilometer deep sea pipeline from Oman to Gujarat to bypass the crisis hit straight of Hormuz the project one of the world's deepest pipelines will take 5 to 7 years to build led by Gale Eil IOC and based on Sage's feasibility work it aims to secure long-term conflict proof gas supplies from Oman man and the wider Gulf, reducing India's dependence on volatile LNG markets and vulnerable maritime choke points. Let's connect the dots.

[00:00:44]A 2,000 km subc natural gas pipeline connecting Oman's coast to Gujarat costing about $4.8 billion. It will run through the Arabian Sea, bypassing the straight of Hormuz, and reach depths of up to 3,450 m, making it one of the deepest undersea pipelines ever attempted.

[00:01:04]The Iran US conflict has closed or severely restricted the straight of Hormuz.

[00:01:08]>> The the Gulf countries, Saudi Arabia will they've seen, you know, the vulnerability of of trading via, you know, the straight hormuz they will probably look to diversify their their trade routes. So for example for oil potentially overland um pipelines for something like containers you know expanding the ports that are outside of the of the straight of horm so there are things that those countries can do to mitigate and I think they having seen the you know the events of recent you know recent weeks they will they will definitely invest in doing that India bound tankers carrying crude and LG have been stuck there causing one of India's worst energy disruptions nearly 50% of India's crude crude imports and a major share of LG passed through Hormos. India wants a permanent alternative that is free from conflict to secure long-term gas supplies. The pipeline would give India direct access to gas from Oman, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkmanistan, Qatar. These countries collectively hold 2,500 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves. The pipeline will reduce dependence on LNG spot markets. I mean I think at the moment what we're seeing in the in the Middle East is a is a very important um you know geopolitical um developments. Um I think we see two clear um clearly differentiated groups.

[00:02:30]On the one hand we have Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey which are you know forcing themselves as as the energy of the the security leaders in the in the region. And on the other hand, as you correctly mentioned, you have the UAE, which is um close links with India, Israel, and the and the and the US. And and I think that what this really means for oil markets is that we're likely to see much more production from the UE coming forward. And that would mean lower oil prices in the medium in the medium and long term. India faces price volatility, supply shocks, high forex outflows as a result of the West Asia crisis and the pipeline provides stable cost competitive gas without relying on tankers or transit countries. India consumes 190 to 195 million metric standard cubic meters per day of gas today and will need 290 to 300 mms cmd by 2030. A dedicated pipeline helps meet this rising demand. A feasibility report is underway and construction is expected to take 5 to seven years after approval.

[00:03:44]So it's expected to be completed between 2033 and 2035. The government has revived the decade old Middle East India deep water pipeline plan. The prefeasibility study has already been completed by SAGE or the South Asia Gas Enterprise Private Limited. 3,000 mters of test pipeline have already been laid to study seabed conditions.

[00:04:09]Specifically, the geotechnical, geological, and hydrodnamic factors that determine whether a 3,00 to 3,450 m deep pipeline can survive for decades.

[00:04:21]Engineers need to know what the ocean floor is made of at extreme depths, sediment type, rock formations, slopes, sheer strength of seabed soil. A pipeline cannot be laid on unstable slopes or loose sediments that may shift under pressure. The pipeline must follow a route where the seabed is smooth enough to support it without excessive bending or stress.

[00:04:50]The Arabian Sea has micro fault lines, seismic zones. How much movement will the pipeline tolerate?

[00:04:57]Then there are deep sea currents that can cause vortex induced vibrations that can cause metal fatigue. The 3,000 m test pipeline was laid to study deep sea seabed stability, soil strength, currents, pressure, corrosion and seismic risks, proving that a 3.4 km deep Oman India gas pipeline is technically feasible. The sage test pipeline was made at a cost of 25 cr rupees to validate seabed conditions.

[00:05:34]The intended pipeline starts in Oman. It passes through the Arabian Sea, avoids Hormus and other sensitive maritime corridors and will land in Gujarat. At depths of 3,450 m, it is one of the deepest subsea pipelines globally and requires advanced deep sea pipe laying and repair technology. It will take 5 to 7 years to construct once approved. The public sector team includes Gail as the lead operator with transmission expertise engineers India Limited EIL to look at technical feasibility engineering Indian Oil Corporation for enduser and project participation from the private sector South Asia Gas Enterprise Sage has submitted a prefeasibility study and conducted test pipeline work. The likely contractors could be firms like Lassen and Tubro with subc engineering capabilities.

[00:06:33]Natural gas reaches consumers in two very different forms as pipeline gas and as LNG or liqufied natural gas. The fuel is the same but the way it is transported makes all the difference in cost, complexity and reliability.

[00:06:51]Pipeline gas moves in its natural gaseous form from high-pressure pipelines.

[00:06:57]It stays at normal temperature and simply flows across long distances with the help of compressor stations. There is no cooling, no special handling and no conversion process. Once it reaches the destination, it can go straight into power plants, fertilizer units and city gas networks. LG on the other hand is natural gas that has been super cooled to minus 162° C. So it becomes a liquid.

[00:07:27]This reduces its volume by a factor of 600 allowing it to be shipped across oceans in specialized cryogenic tankers.

[00:07:36]But the process is energyintensive and expensive. Gas must be purified, dehydrated, liquefied, stored in insulated tanks, shipped over long distances, and then heated again at the receiving terminal to convert it back into gas. Each step adds costs. That is why piped gas is consistently cheaper.

[00:07:57]It avoids the liquefaction, shipping, and regification stages that add $3 to $5 per mmtu to LG prices. Pipeline gas also avoids global shipping bottlenecks and volatile spot markets, making it more stable and predictable.

[00:08:17]In simple terms, pipeline gas is gas that flows. LG is gas that must be frozen, shipped, and reheated, and you pay for every step.

[00:08:28]>> The gas will go down as soon as the war's over. It'll drop like a rock.

[00:08:32]There's so much of it. It's all over the place, sitting all over the oceans of the world. And it'll be it'll go down.

[00:08:39]But what won't happen is if Iran had a nuclear weapon and used it, >> then the whole world is a different place. You're not going to have to pay a little bit more for gasoline. Uh the gasoline, the oil will go down rapidly as soon as the war is over. The pipeline will ensure uninterrupted gas supply, reduce dependence on hormones, cut exposure to LG spot markets and support India's goal of increasing gas share in its energy mix.

[00:09:10]Gulf suppliers Oman, UAE, Qatar gain a stable long-term buyer. It will help Indian industries across fertilizer, spar generation and prochemical segments. While India's crude exposure to the straight of hormones is around 50%, LG exposure however is above 80%.

[00:09:28]Making the choke point a critical vulnerability. Oil and gas behave completely differently inside a pipeline and require different types of construction. This pipeline will carry natural gas at high pressure in gaseous form and not liqufied natural gas. It will certainly not be carrying crude oil and LPG. But in doing so, the Oman India deep sea pipeline will carry natural gas from the Gulf of Gujarat, bypassing the straight of Hormus and reducing India's dependence on LNG tankers.

[00:10:14]On the morning of May 24th, 2026, a train was making a routine journey through Quitta, the capital of Pakistan's southwestern province of Baluchasthan. It was carrying military personnel and their families who were traveling home for Eid at around 8:05 in the morning near Chaman Patak station. A vehicle packed with more than 70 kg of explosives was detonated right next to the moving train. Two of the train compartments overturned and caught fire. Several nearby buildings were badly damaged and more than a dozen vehicles parked along the road were destroyed.

[00:10:57]At least 24 people were killed and over 70 injured. Women and children were among them.

[00:11:06]I was right there near the tracks. I can't even believe how we survived. It was right there just a few steps away, right in front of us. Only a few steps.

[00:11:16]The blast was so huge. Thank god we made it out alive.

[00:11:22]>> The Baloasan Liberation Army or the BLA claimed responsibility calling it a highly organized Fidí attack. A fiden attack means a suicide mission.

[00:11:36]Someone drove that vehicle into that train knowing they would not come back.

[00:11:45]After going outside following the blast, we saw chaos everywhere. A crying mother was searching for her son, but he had already reached the hospital. On the other side, vehicles were engulfed in intense fire.

[00:12:00]Screams for help were coming from the train compartments ahead. Along with my cousins, I went into the train compartments and it was a terrifying scene. Unbearable to look at. Still, we lifted the injured and carried them to ambulances.

[00:12:20]Look at the condition of our vehicle. I also had my own vehicle here. All the vehicles worth crowds of rupees that were parked here were completely burned down. We have suffered so much loss.

[00:12:33]This was not an isolated incident. It is part of a pattern. Just over a year earlier in March 2025, BLA fighters hijacked the Jaffer Express. Hundreds of passengers were taken hostage in a 30hour standoff before a military operation ended it. The military said 21 hostages, four troops, and all 33 attackers were killed. In November 2024, a suicide bomber struck Queta's main railway station, killing 26 people. The BLA has turned trains in Balojasthan into a front line. So the question is why? What is driving this insurgency?

[00:13:19]BLA demands complete independence of Baluchasthan from Pakistan aiming to end what it calls the illegal occupation of its land. And to understand that you need to understand where Baluchasthan is and why it is so important. Baluchasthan is Pakistan's largest province by land.

[00:13:40]It covers nearly 44% of the entire country. It shares long porous borders with both Iran and Afghanistan and its southern border opens onto the Arabian Sea. It is vast, remote and geopolitically critical. Balojasthan is also Pakistan's richest province by natural resources. But the irony is it is the poorest province despite the natural wealth. The ground beneath Baluchasthan holds enormous deposits of natural gas, coal, gold and copper. The Reiko Deik mine alone is one of the largest undeveloped copper and gold reserves on the planet. The province has fueled Pakistan's economy for decades.

[00:14:29]And yet the people who live there, roughly 5% of Pakistan's 240 million population, remain the most neglected.

[00:14:38]the most impoverished and the most marginalized in the entire country.

[00:14:44]Roads are underdeveloped, jobs are scarce. The wealth flows out to Islamabad and almost nothing flows back.

[00:14:54]This is not a new wound. It goes back to 1948 just months after British India was partitioned into India and Pakistan. The princely state of Kalat historically a Balo kingdom was controversially annexed into the newly formed Pakistan. Balo tribal leaders resisted. That original confrontation set the terms of a conflict that has never been fully resolved. For decades, the insurgency simmered. In the early 2000s, it turned into an armed uprising and the BLA emerged as its most aggressive face.

[00:15:36]Then came a new chapter that made everything worse and that is the CPEC, the China Pakistan Economic Corridor.

[00:15:46]This is a multi-billion dollar network of roads, pipelines, and infrastructure connecting China's western regions to the Arabian Sea right through Baluchasthan. The project's crown jewel is the deep sea port at Guadada on Baluchasan's coast. It is developed with Chinese investment and designed to give Paching direct maritime access to the Arabian Sea. For Pakistan and China, Cpek is a strategic and economic tool.

[00:16:18]But for the Balo people, it looks very different. The BLA and the Balo activists view it as neoc colonial exploitation. It's like outside powers carving up their land, extracting their resources, and flooding their region with outside workers. They fear that an influx of Chinese workers and settlers will eventually turn the ethnic balo into a minority in their own homeland.

[00:16:46]The BLA's armed wing, the Majid Brigade has repeatedly targeted Chinese engineers and Chinese linked infrastructure in Balojasthan as a direct result. But it is not just economic grievance that fuels the fire.

[00:17:01]It is something darker. something that organizations like Amnesty International Human Rights Watch and the United Nations Human Rights Experts have documented in detail. For years, Balo activists, students, and journalists have disappeared. They were picked up by Pakistani intelligence and security forces and never officially acknowledged. Their families hold roadside vigils carrying photographs of their loved ones. But missing remains missing and if found they are found as bodies often mutilated.

[00:17:38]There have been systematic abuses by Pakistani military intelligence and paramilitary forces against the Balo population. Bodies are found dumped by roadsides and in mass graves. They are found with signs of torture, burn marks, broken bones, missing fingernails, acid burns. Detainees have been subjected to electric shocks, sleep deprivation, starvation, and prolonged isolation in hidden military camps, cut off from their families, and any legal representation.

[00:18:14]The BLA claims every attack as a retaliation for these crimes.

[00:18:20]They call it a response to Pakistani state terrorism. The Pakistani government condemns every attack. Prime Minister Shabbal Sharif condemned this latest bombing too. Pakistan's military carries out counterinsurgency operations. More troops are deployed.

[00:18:37]More crackdowns. The cycle continues.

[00:18:40]The grievances of Balo people have never been addressed. Instead, Pakistan responded to political disscent with military force rather than political solutions. Violence on any side cannot be the answer. The only way this ends is through dialogue. Genuine political engagement with the people of Baluchasan. Until that happens, the conflict is far from over.

[00:19:09]That's all in this edition of Connecting the Dots. We'll see you in the next episode with more raging issues. Until then, it's goodbye from all of us in the Delhi newsroom. This is Mark Lynn signing off. Take care and stay safe.