Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb.17 / Trend V. Zhavoronkova /
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) firmly believes that Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) is a win-win project for all countries involved, Philip Wood, Media Relations Specialist of the Department of External Relations of the Asian Development Bank, told Trend on Thursday.
Ashgabat today completes a meeting of the technical working group on the TAPI project. Besides experts of the countries interested in the project representatives of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) are also invited to the event. The agenda includes the preparation of an agreement for the sale of Turkmen natural gas and other documents signing of which are scheduled for the first half of 2011, which will allow starting the project
"It's a unique opportunity to enhance energy trade and energy security in the region by physically linking energy rich countries with the fast-growing markets of Asia, the Middle East, and beyond," he said.
Regarding further funding of the project Wood said that the four TAPI countries are working on a project development plan that will include determining the specific bidding process for the project.
According to him, the four TAPI countries will determine the specific bidding process and who they want to build and manage the pipeline, and ADB will respect their decision.
ADB has not invited an expression of interest from any third party, he said.
"Bilateral and group discussions are on-going, and we would expect for many meetings to take place between various parties in the months to come," Wood said.
The bank's representative said that when investment and financing plans are finalized, and when fundraising structures are agreed and fund raising gets under way, ADB will probably be approached to provide some financing, which will be considered in due course.
The length of the TAPI can hit more than 17,000 km. Its design capacity is 33 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year. Besides Dovletabad field, Yoloten developed by Turkmenistan will be a resource base. This field is one of the world super giants with 22 trillion cubic meters of gas.
An intergovernmental and a framework agreement between TAPI project participating countries signed in December 2010 in Ashgabat is a basic document for talks on the project.
