US to facilitate trans-Afghan gas pipeline project

ASHGABAT, February 17 (Itar-Tass) -- The United States welcomed
Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov's initiative to accelerate
the construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas
pipeline.
Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs
Robert Blake met with Berdymukhamedov on Wednesday, February 16, to
reiterate that his country welcomed Turkmenistan's policy of
diversification of energy routes and supported its decision to sell
natural gas for the Nabucco project.
The 3,300-kilometre Nabucco pipeline is due to connect the European
Union to gas deposits in Central Asia and the Middle East. It is planned
to start the construction of the line between Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania,
Hungary, and Austria in 2011. The project supported by the EU costs seven
billion euros, but it is still unclear whether the pipeline can be filled.
The European Union hoped to engage Iranian gas fields for the Nabucco
project. But the American administration objected to the possible
transportation of Iranian natural gas through the prospective Nabucco
pipeline and believes that the possible transportation of Russian natural
gas through that pipeline would also contradict the goal of diversified
energy supplies.
The pipeline will transport gas from Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and
Uzbekistan to Ukraine through the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, Georgia and the
Black Sea.
The first gas supplies by this pipeline from Azerbaijan are expected
in 2012. According to experts from the pipeline consortium, Nabucco may be
able to transport natural gas from Iran after 2017.
Blake also welcomed Turkmenistan's decision to develop the TAPI
project. The assistance secretary of state is leading a delegation that
ahs arrived in Turkmenistan for a semi-annual review of bilateral
relations.
He believes that the implementation of the TAPI project will benefit
Turkmenistan and will also offer new opportunities for economic
development of Afghanistan by creating new jobs in that country.
A draft agreement on the purchase of natural gas to be transported by
the to-be-built gas pipeline Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India
topped the agenda of 10th meeting of the Technical Group in Ashgabat.
The agreement is expected to be signed in the first half of the year.
The talks on the document started in January in Dubai where experts from
the countries that purchase Turkmen gas met with officials from the Asian
Development Bank. The results of the talks were later discussed by Turkmen
specialists and officials from the Asian Development Bank in Ashgabat.
The more than 7,000-kilometre transnational gas pipeline, which runs
across four countries, will have a capacity of up to 10 billion and
subsequently up to 40 billion cubic metres of gas a year for the next 30
years.