Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec. 16 /Trend, T.Konyayeva/
Existing border disputes between India and Pakistan will not become an obstacle to the implementation of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas project, said the director of gas projects at the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas of India Manu Srivastava.
"We do not think that the existing border disputes between India and Pakistan will create obstacles for the project, said Srivastava. - In spite of serious differences between India and Pakistan, we believe that we should shake hands and try to reach an agreement, which would help find a solution."
Dec. 11, Ashgabat hosted the summit of the participating countries of TAPI gas pipeline project, as a result of which the leaders of three countries, as well as Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas of India Murli Deora signed a framework agreement on gas pipeline and an inter-governmental agreement on TAPI gas pipeline project.
One of the possible obstacles in the implementation of the project is long-standing territorial claims of India and Pakistan.
Meanwhile, according to Srivastava, the Indian side have concerns about the safety of the project.
"We discussed this issue with Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkmenistan, which resulted in signing an inter-governmental agreement, which states that these countries [Afghanistan and Pakistan] have proposed safeguards to ensure the safety of the pipeline and gas transported through it, as well as its functioning, construction and maintenance," said Srivastava.
According to the feasibility study of the project, the pipeline will stretch for 1,735 kilometers from the major Dovletabad field in eastern Turkmenistan, will pass through Herat and Kandahar provinces (Afghanistan), Quetta District (Pakistan) and reach Fazilk settlement (India) on the Pakistan-Indian border.
The first concerns about the safety of the project are that part of the pipeline passes through the territories of Afghanistan, which are controlled by the Taliban.
Meanwhile, Afghanistan can receive significant benefits from the project, which will contribute to raising the country's economy, creating many new jobs, building social infrastructure and political stability throughout the region.
Transit fees will bring hundreds of millions of dollars to the budget of Afghanistan. In this case, five billion cubic meters of Turkmen gas may be directed to cover the needs of Afghanistan itself.
India is serious about the safety of the project, said Srivastava.
"We want to hope that these guarantees will be supported by governments, he said. - In addition, we have an agreement to guarantee gas supplies and our commitment to pay for it. The consortium for the construction of the pipeline could also play a role in this matter."
It is expected that the pipeline, of which construction is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2014, will allow to transport 33 billion cubic meters of gas annually, of which only India is ready to buy up to 18 billion cubic meters. The cost of pipeline construction is estimated at $7.6 billion. Nevertheless, the signed agreement did not contain many of the necessary details, such as the exact date of the project implementation, the size of the transit rates, financing terms.
Project participants have to find banks and companies that wish to join the consortium to build the pipeline. It is assumed that part of costs will be covered by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which in 2005 financed a feasibility study for TAPI.
The United States and Russia also stated their intention to promote the construction of the pipeline.