Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, Jan. 17 / Trend H. Hasanov /
Dubai (UAE) held a meeting of experts representing the future buyers of Turkmen natural gas within the gas pipeline project Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI), the official Turkmen source said.
The agreement on Turkmen gas purchase-sale is expected to be signed no later than April 2011.
A source said that a detailed discussion took place on the basis of the inter-state agreement on TAPI implementation, which was signed at a high level in Ashgabat in December 2010.
The representatives of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) attended the discussions in the UAE.
At this stage, the concerned parties agree on the purchase-sale of raw materials, safe transit, primary sources and consider financing.
The length of the TAPI can hit more than 17,000 km. Its design capacity is 33 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year. Official Ashgabat assured that the country has enough reserves to supply large-scale project for decades.
Besides Dovletabad field, Yoloten developed by Turkmenistan will be a resource base. This field is one of the world super giants with 22 trillion cubic meters of gas.