ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan, Sept. 21 (UPI) -- Final approval for a framework agreement on the multilateral gas pipeline from Turkmenistan still needs Cabinet approval, the Indian government announced.
The four parties to the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline met Monday in Ashgabat to sign a natural gas sales purchase agreement and a gas pipeline framework agreement.
Jitin Prasada, the Indian state minister for petroleum and natural gas, said the project had widespread support from the India government, the Indo-Asian News Service reports.
"The Cabinet has already given in-principle approval to the GPFA," a government statement read. "However the final signing would be done only after the Cabinet approves this document."
Prasada warned that the project would only be successful if transit fees for natural gas through each of the host countries were kept "at a minimum."
Security issues for the portion of the pipeline running through Afghanistan and Pakistan were also concerns for the Indian government, he added.
The 1,043-mile TAPI pipeline would move natural gas from the Dauletabad field in Turkmenistan to consumers in Pakistan and India after transiting Afghanistan. Turkmenistan has more than 40 trillion cubic feet of gas in its Dauletabad gas field.
The Asian Development Bank financed a feasibility study for TAPI in 2005 despite the war in Afghanistan. The project is seen as a rival to Iran's plans to build its own pipeline to Pakistan from the giant offshore South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf.
