Turkmenistan will supply 3.2 billion cubic feet gas per day to Pakistan for a period of 30 years, according to a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed at the conclusion of a tow-day ministerial meeting of Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TAP) held in Ashgabat. Turkmenistan Minister for Oil and Gas Gurbanmurat Atayev, Pakistan's Petroleum and Natural Resources Minister Amanullah Jadoon, and Minister for Mines and Industries of Afghanistan Mir Mohammad Siddique represented their respective their countries' delegations at the talks. India's Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dinsha J. Patel attended the meeting as observer while Dan Millison, Energy Specialist, represented the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The two-day meeting deliberated upon the key issues of gas availability, security, route, pipeline structure, gas pricing and financial aspects of the project. The India side expressed its willingness to joint the TAP. The meeting expressed satisfaction over the pace of progress on the TAP project and agreed to adopt strategy to implement it as early as possible for the benefit of the member states and the region as well. The meeting took into consideration the feasibility report presented by the ADB. It was agreed to hold a technical experts meeting followed by TAP ministerial meeting in Islamabad in April 2006 to ink the gas pricing agreement. Jadoon said that this project would not only open up avenues of cooperation in the oil and gas sector between the member states but also help bring the people of regional countries closer. -end- 13 33 Local Time 10 33 GMT
