Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, April 27 / Trend H. Hasanov /
Today talks of members of the Steering Committee on implementation of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project have started in India, which focuses on discussing the cost of Turkmen gas within the project, an official Turkmen source said on Wednesday.
The talks will end on April 29.
According to information, the detailed discussion of this issue will be held based on the intergovernmental agreement to start the implementation of TAPI, signed at a high level in Ashgabat in December 2010. The talks in Delhi will be attended by representatives of the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
The Turkmen delegation is represented by the Minister of Oil and Gas Industry and Mineral Resources Bairamgeldy Nedirov and Turkmengaz State Concern Chairman Amanaly Khanalyev.
The length of the TAPI can grow to more than 17,000 km. Its design capacity is 33 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year.
Ashgabat assures that the country has enough reserves to supply a 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.
At this stage, the parties interested in the project are agreeing on transit security, raw material sources and decides on funding.
Kabul assures that Afghanistan, where the situation has long been unstable, is able to assume ensuring security of the TAPI project, both during its construction and during the later operation of the entire infrastructure.