Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

The project on the construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline acquires more significance and real features of practical implementation, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said at an expanded government meeting held in Ashgabat last week.

"This pipeline will be a real contribution to the establishment of international energy cooperation, an effective stabilizing factor having a positive impact on the entire situation and will give additional stability to the entire system of political and economic ties in the Asian continent," he said.

Enjoying huge hydrocarbon potential, confirmed by authoritative international experts, Turkmenistan has done much work for diversifying the natural gas export supplies to the international markets in the past few years, he said.

Berdymukhamedov went on to say that by implementing these plans which are based on economic interests and taking into account the potential buyers' demands on the Turkmen gas, Turkmenistan gradually expands the geography of gas export. Currently, this geography includes the countries, located in different parts of the Eurasian continent.

The TAPI pipeline project with design capacity of 33 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year will extend from Galkhynysh field in Turkmenistan through the Afghan cities of Herat and Kandahar to the final point, a settlement on the Pakistani-Indian border.

The basic document for the promotion of the TAPI project is the Ashgabat intergovernmental agreement on the start of actual implementation of the TAPI project signed in late 2010 by the four participating countries.

According to experts, TAPI is not only a regional project envisaging the transportation of Turkmen gas, but also a global project. They believe that the implementation of the project will strengthen the independence of Turkmenistan and its gas supplies to world markets will increase significantly.

Furthermore, observers say that the main benefit of the project is an opportunity to contribute to the stabilization of Afghanistan, and its implementation could contribute to the rehabilitation process in the post-war country as it will create jobs and provide Afghanistan with guaranteed income from transit.