Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, Feb.17 / Trend H. Hasanov /
Project of construction of Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline is of great importance for the region, Robert Blake, Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs, said at a meeting with Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhammadov in Ashgabat, national television channel Altyn Asir reported on Thursday.
The television channel reported that the U.S. diplomat stressed the importance of an intergovernmental agreement on the implementation of the project signed in Ashgabat in December 2010.
The U.S. diplomat also said that the "United States appreciates and supports international initiatives put forward by Turkmenistan, which are aimed at finding optimal solutions to urgent problems, ensuring global energy security, establishing mutually beneficial cooperation that meets the interests of common well-being and sustainable development. "
Ashgabat hosts a meeting of the technical working group on the TAPI project on these days, Feb.14-17. A. Besides experts of the countries interested in the project representatives of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) are also invited to the event. The agenda includes the preparation of an agreement for the sale ofTurkmen natural gas and other documents signing of which are scheduled for the first half of 2011, which will allow starting the project.
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.
The representative of the U.S. Department of State also supported the Turkmen leadership's policy of diversification of markets of energy resources sales, including within Nabucco pipeline project, which aims at providing European market with raw material.