New Delhi, July 13 (RIA Novosti, Natalia Shilo) - India has agreed to join the ambitious trans-Afghan pipeline project, Pakistani Deputy Oil and Gas Minister Ahmad Waqar said Wednesday.
The pipeline will transport natural gas from Turkmenistan to India through Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The deputy minister spoke to reporters in New Delhi after a session of the bilateral Indian-Pakistani working group for energy cooperation. Waqar co-chairs the group with an Indian Deputy Oil and Gas Minister, S.B. Tripathi.
India expressed interest in joining the trans-Afghan pipeline project last month. Officials from the Indian Oil Ministry have now been invited to attend sessions of expert commissions working on the project.
Earlier this year, the Asian Development Bank submitted a feasibility study on the trans-Afghan pipeline project. The study was carried out by the British company Penspen in accordance with the agreement concluded in 2002 by the four states participating in the project.
The pipeline, 1,680 kilometers long and 56 inches in diameter, will run from Douletabad, in Turkmenistan, to the Indian town of Fazilka, which is near the Pakistani border. It is designed to withstand pressures of up to 100 times atmospheric pressure; and its projected annual capacity is 33 billion cubic meters. The pipeline and six compressor stations will cost an estimated $3.3 billion to build. Construction is due to commence in 2006.
Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov has repeatedly invited Gazprom to join the project, but the Russian gas giant has so far declined. This is hardly surprising, given that Ashgabat's policy of diversifying gas exports runs counter to Russian interests.
