India invited to join Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan gas pipeline project

Feb. 27, 2003
The steering committee on the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan natural gas pipeline has agreed to invite India to join the $3.2 billion project, and a formal invitation is expected to be extended to New Delhi before the steering committee's next meeting in Manila on Apr. 8.

By an OGJ correspondent
KARACHI, Feb. 27 -- The steering committee on the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan natural gas pipeline has agreed to invite India to join the $3.2 billion project, and a formal invitation is expected to be extended to New Delhi before the steering committee's next meeting in Manila on Apr. 8.

The decision to invite India came Feb. 22 during talks in Islamabad. Turkmenistan's Deputy Prime Minister Yully Qurbanmuradova, Afghan Petroleum and Mines Minister Juma Mohammad Mohammadi, and Pakistan's Petroleum Minister Nauraiz Shakoor led their respective countries' delegations during that meeting.

The 1,300 km pipeline would carry up to 20 billion cu m year of natural gas. It likely would be constructed to Pakistan's Sui field, from which existing infrastructure could be tapped to supply major local markets (OGJ, Oct. 7, 2002, p. 21).

Shakoor told reporters in a briefing that the viability of the project depends on the pipeline's extension to India, so the committee unanimously agreed to invite India to joint the project.

In other action, the committee prepared to form a consortium, approving a pre-qualification document, the first draft of which would be completed by Mar. 30.

The draft would then be issued to oil and natural gas companies, which would submit their qualifications by July 31. A short-list of qualifying parties would be complete by August, the committee agreed.