Turkmenistan revives India gas pipeline plan: report
22 May 2010
Turkmenistan is reviving a proposal for setting up a gas pipeline to India through conflict-ridden Afghanistan and Pakistan, reports quoting official sources said today.
Turkmenistan, the biggest exporter of natural gas in Central Asia, is expected to revive an earlier proposal for a gas pipeline to India when the country's president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov visits India next week.
Berdymukhamedov will pay an offical visit to India on May 24-26, reports quoting Turkmen government sources as saying.
The proposal for the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project has been bogged down by the Afghan conflict despite interest showed by energy companies and the four governments in investing $4 billion in the project.
The report said Pakistan and India had expressed interest in buying up to 70 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas a year from Turkmenistan - double that was initially proposed.
Reports said Turkmenistan is planning to diversify its market after Russia, its main customer, stopped buying from the ex-Soviet republic last year.
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