NEW DELHI: Oil and gas ministers of the three countries attending the project's fifth steering committee meeting in Manila invited India to participate both as an investor and as a major buyer of the gas. "It (the pipeline) has significant potential to improve stability and raise living standards in South and Central Asia," said the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in a statement issued after the meeting. The ADB, which is playing the role of lead development partner and helping prepare the feasibility study for the pipeline, said it was willing to make a presentation on the project to the Indian government. The proposed presentation would include the "approach towards mitigating risks and security concerns related to the project," it said. The Manila-based bank has given a $1 million grant to finance the feasibility study of the pipeline project. The $2.5 billion project will transport up to 30 billion cubic metres of natural gas annually from the Dauletabad fields in southeast Turkmenistan to consumers in Afghanistan, Pakistan and possibly India, the ADB said. Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkmenistan signed an agreement in December to launch the gas pipeline project that represented one of the first major investment projects in Afghanistan in decades. The construction of the pipeline had been previously discussed between Afghanistan's former Taliban regime, U.S. oil company Unocal and Bridas of Argentina. The project was abandoned after the U.S. attacked Afghanistan in 2001 and ousted the Taliban regime. India is the main potential buyer of the gas. But efforts to interest New Delhi in the project have been unsuccessful, primarily because India is reluctant to depend on its hostile neighbour Pakistan. The ADB said it would submit drafts of model gas transportation and gas sale and purchase agreements within the next 10 days to the steering committee, which will meet again next month. The committee comprising the oil and gas ministers was formed in May 2002. In the past 11 months, five steering committee meetings and two meetings of heads of government have been held.
Source: IANS