Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, Dec.26 / Trend, H. Hasanov /
Ashgabat hosted a series of meetings of Afghan delegation with the Turkmen government in the context of further development of constructive cooperation, the Neutral Turkmenistan newspaper reported on Monday.
The meetings discussed an action plan to further develop regional cooperation, including in the fuel and energy sector and power industry. The article says that in this regard, a "special significance and a stabilizing factor of projects initiated by Turkmenistan" was stressed.
The question is about constructing the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline and laying power lines along the Mary-Atamyrat (Turkmenistan)-Andkhoy (Afghanistan) highway, which will increase the export of the Turkmen electricity to Afghanistan by 5 times and will meet the neighboring country's electricity needs almost by 70 percent.
A design capacity of TAPI is 33 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year. Buyers are Pakistani and Indian gas companies. The project significantly progressed in 2011. The basic document to advance TAPI project is an inter-state agreement to start implementation of TAPI, signed at a high level in Ashgabat in December 2010. Instability in transit Afghanistan remains as a serious obstacle, but Kabul states that it can ensure the safety of the route. The length of the pipeline may hit 1,735 km.
The Asian Development Bank actively promotes this project funding the preparation of its feasibility study. The source of raw materials in addition to the Dovletabad field will be developed "Southern Yoloten - Osman" field. At present, the principle of forming an international consortium is under discussions and issue regarding funding of the project is being solved.