Turkmenistan, Afghanistan sign agt on building gas pipeline.

T

31/8 Tass 77

ASHGABAT, August 31 (Itar-Tass) -- Turkmenistan and Afghanistan have
signed a frame agreement on the construction of a
Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline. The signing
was held during a meeting of the intergovernmental Turkmenian-Afghan
commission on trade and economic cooperation on Monday, Turkmenistan's
mass media report on Tuesday. The agreement was signed by Minister of Oil
and Gas industry and Mineral Recourses of Turkmenistan Bairamgeldy Nedirov
and Minister of Mines and Mine Industry of Afghanistan Wahidullah Shahrani.
Over the last months, the states-participants have been actively
trying to speed up the development of the project. Last week issues of
speeding up the realization of the TAPI gas pipeline were in the focus of
attention of a meeting of the Turkmenian-Afghan intergovernmental
commission held in Islamabad on August 24. Besides, Presidents Gurbanguly
Beredymukhammedov and Hamid Karzai agreed to discus issues of realization
of the Transafghan project at a bilateral meeting within the framework of
the UN General Assembly which will be held in New York in September.
In the mid-August, the Turkmenistanian president charged the
government with "concluding an agreement on purchase and sale of natural
gas within the framework of the TAPI project." This document starts the
project's practical realization. Its feasibility study was prepared in
2005 with financial support of the Asian Development Bank. The length of
the gas pipeline, according to this document, amounted to 1,680 kilometres
- - from the gas supply point in Turkmenistan (gas field Dovletabad) to
the settlement of Fazilka in India on the border with Pakistan. The cost
of the construction was estimated then at 3.3 billion dollars.
-0-ast


Delete & Prev | Delete & Next