Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

A service agreement on Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pas pipeline (TAPI) was signed on November 20 in Turkmenistan's capital Ashgabat, Baku-based Trend news agency reported with reference to the local Turkmen media.

The agreement was signed by transactional advisor-Asian Development Bank (ADB) as well as with Turkmengas state concern, Afghanistan's Gas Corporation, Pakistani Inter State Gas Systems (Private) Limited Corporation and Gail (India) Limited Company.

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.