ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan, Nov. 15 (UPI) -- Turkmenistan is committed to gas supplies to and Pakistan promised security for a pipeline running through Afghanistan, a working group concluded.
A working group from partner states joined the Asian Development Bank to examine the viability of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline.
The working group concluded that Turkmenistan had the natural gas needed for the project and Pakistan could provide security assurances for the 1,043-mile natural gas pipeline, Russia's ITAR-Tass news agency reports.
Turkmenistan is tilting East and West amid geopolitical concerns over energy security. Gazprom, according to Russian energy czar and Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, is interested in joining TAPI as a rival to the Iranian gas pipeline. Ashgabat, however, blamed Gazprom for an explosion on one of its pipelines, which prompted the country to look to the West for new customers.
The Western-backed project is viewed as a rival to Iran's plans to transit natural gas from its South Pars gas field to Pakistan and India through the so-called Peace Pipeline.
The TAPI working group coordinated drafts for multilateral agreements on the pipeline as well as frameworks for gas contracts with Turkmenistan.
All four countries are to weigh in on the issue at a December summit in Ashgabat.
