OREANDA-NEWS. May 03, 2011.  The participants of the 13th meeting of the Steering Committee on the TAPI gas pipeline project, which was held in the Indian capital, Delhi, expressed the willingness to build the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline within the shortest possible period. The meeting brought together the oil and gas ministers of Turkmenistan, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the Republic of India, top managers and experts of the oil and gas companies of the participating countries. The representatives of the Asian Development Bank that provided consulting and legal assistance to the project participated in the meeting.

As is known, the priority aspects of Turkmenistan’s energy strategy include diversification of natural gas exports and development of diversified pipeline infrastructure. In this contest a particular role is assigned to accelerated implementation of the large-scale project of construction of transnational energy route that is to ensure long-term supplies of over 30 billion cubic metres of Turkmen natural gas to South Asia.

In an atmosphere of mutual understanding the participants of the 13th meeting of the Steering Committee unanimously underscored particular topicality of construction of the new energy corridor in the Asian region. Focusing on high demand in energy in largest South Asian countries, the specialists expressed belief that long-term supplies of Turkmen ‘blue fuel’ would contribute to enhancing the economic potential of the participating countries.

The meeting participants underscored the critical international political significance of the TAPI gas pipeline project in strengthening peace and stability in the Asian region that was facilitated to larger extent by the peace-building strategy pursued by President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov. Reaffirming in this regard their commitment and willingness to speed up the implementation of the important transnational energy project, the meeting participants discussed a number of issues regarded to acceleration of the work on the projected gas pipeline.

The 13th meeting of the Technical Workgroup was held these days with the participation of experts from Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. The issues underlying the draft gas sales agreement were discussed and harmonized during the meeting.