The port of Gwadar, in southern Balochistan, is expected to become the terminus of three proposed gas pipelines reaching either from Daulatabad’s fields in Turkmenistan, South Pars fields in Iran or from Qatar.

The control of these oil and gas reserves is at the centre of a new “great game”, which is complicated by the Chinese presence in Gwadar, near the Strait of Hormuz, America’s military presence in the Af-Pak region, and ethnic unrest in Balochistan.