India to import natural gas from Turkmenistan

India to import natural gas from Turkmenistan

Ashgabat, December 11
India today signed agreements to import natural gas from Turkmenistan through an ADB-based $7.6 billion gas pipeline passing through Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Oil Minister Murli Deora signed the Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) and the Gas Pipeline Framework Agreement for the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline here.
“Today is a very important day, not just for India, but for all the countries (in the TAPI project),” he said at the signing ceremony attended by Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov.PTI

The agreements are commitments of the four nations to building of the project even as New Delhi voiced concerns over safe delivery of gas through the pipeline that would pass Taliban stronghold Kandahar province and then into Pakistan's restive tribal areas.Turkmenistan is Central Asia’s biggest gas producer