The truth of NATO supply lines via Pakistan-Only 50% of supplies and 30% of petroleum supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan come via Pakistan.

The truth of NATO supply lines via Pakistan

Only 50% of supplies and 30% of petroleum supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan come via Pakistan.

In the hullabaloo over the recent closure of one of the transit points at Torkham for NATO supply lines into Afghanistan, it is pretty common for lazy established international news-agencies to throw up some wrong statistics in their reports. Two such erroneous data-points particularly stand out. One, that nearly 80 percent of NATO supplies for Afghanistan pass through Pakistan. Two, nearly 100 percent of petroleum supplies for NATO forces also traverse through Pakistan. Both are not only wrong, but way off the mark.

Here it is, to put it proverbially, from the horse’s mouth — the September-October 2010 issue of Army Sustainment. Major General Kenneth S Dowd, who was the Director of Logistics at CENTCOM from June 2007 to June 2010 explains:
As June 2010, the Military Surface Deployment and Distribution Command has booked over 50 percent of all sustainment heading to Afghanistan on the NDN [Northern Distribution Network, via Central Asia]and has delivered over 11,000 20-foot containers of cargo to Afghanistan through these new northern routes. …We hope to expand the categories of cargo permitted on the NDN and to retain and expand logistics hubs in Central Asia. [Page 6]
This means that only 50 percent of the logistics supplies to Afghanistan pass through Pakistan. More importantly, this has happened when the number of US troops in Afghanistan have increased substantially since 2009. Dowd also clarifies that “Our business rules call for all sensitive or classified cargo to be flown into Afghanistan on military or commercially contracted aircraft.” This means that the Pakistan route, officially called the PAK GLOC, does not transport any sensitive or classified cargo into Afghanistan.
As far as the petroleum supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan are concerned, the facts come from another article in the same journal by Colonel Jeffrey B Carra, who was the chief of the Joint Petroleum Office at CENTCOM, and Chief Warrant Officer David Ray:
Since 2002, CENTCOM and its strategic petroleum support partners (DESC since 2002, NATO since 2007) have increased fuel storage capacity in Afghanistan from roughly 100,000 gallons to more than 30 million gallons (with up to 12 million of those gallons in contracted commercial steel-tank facilities) to meet a demand that has grown from 40,000 gallons per day in 2002 to more than 1.1 million gallons per day in 2009.
Starting in 2007, CENTCOM partnered with DESC to shift most petroleum sustainment in Afghanistan away from the Southern GLOC, which enters Afghanistan from Pakistan, to what is known as the Northern Distribution Network (NDN), which enters from the Central Asian States. This change increased the amount of petroleum entering by the NDN from 30 percent to 70 percent of all petroleum sustainment. Coupled with the shift to the NDN, DESC had the forethought to initiate a contract provision with its petroleum suppliers to hold up to 9 million gallons of contractor-owned fuel (as a “commercial reserve”) within Afghanistan to mitigate any ebb and flow in regional fuel distribution.
DESC also increased its Government-owned “strategic reserve” in and around Kabul from 2 to 5 million gallons. The strategic reserve and the commercial reserve together provide a shock absorber capable of withstanding major disruptions to petroleum sustainment. [Page 18]
This means that only 30 percent of petroleum supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan come through Pakistan. However, it must be remembered that the logistics route via NDN costs nearly thrice the cost of using the logistics route via Pakistan. Also, it should not be forgotten that the other route from Pakistan into Afghanistan via Chaman is still open for transit.
Notwithstanding the fact that there is no way Pakistan army and GHQ can allow this Al Faida business of logistics supplies via Pakistan to stop, a correct picture of actual NATO supplies transiting through Pakistan would help everyone develop a clearer perspective on the situation.
Of course, it is another matter altogether that this may be the first war the US has fought, where it pays not only its own men, but the enemy as well.