Ispoline, Pakistan
11/11/2005
By khalida
[Printer Friendly Version]

ASHGABAT - The construction of a proposed gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan across Afghanistan will start next year, an Afghan minister said on Thursday.

January, in my opinion, will see the last meeting to find a consortium for the TAP (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan) pipeline," Afghan Minister for Mines and Industries Mir Muhammad Sediq told Reuters in an interview. Work would soon start on the $3.6 billion project, Sediq said but gave no details about a completion date, financing plans or likely consortium members.

The project envisages a 1,600km pipeline, which would provide Turkmenistan with a new outlet for its gas. Afghanistan would get transit revenue while Pakistan would get the much-needed energy.

Sediq said the planned pipeline would supply gas from Turkmenistan’s Dauletabad gas field for 20 years at a rate of 30 billion cubic metres of annually. "The pipeline could be extended to India," he added and referred to the Asian Development Bank’s estimate that the reserves were more than the needs of Pakistan and India. Currently Turkmenistan exports the bulk of its gas from the 1.7 trillion cubic-metre Dauletabad reserves to Ukraine via a pipeline controlled by Russian gas giant Gazprom.

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