December 28, 2002	Saturday	Shawwal 23, 1423

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ASHKABAD, Dec 27: Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan signed an agreement on Friday to build a multi-billion dollar natural gas pipeline, dismissing fears that regional security could threaten the project.

Afghan interim leader Hamid Karzai, Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali and Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov signed the ambitious accord.

“We are glad that this important agreement has been signed, as this is a significant step towards the realization of the project,” Mr Niyazov said.

The 1,400-km line, costed at $2.5 billion, is designed to link the vast gas reserves of Turkmenistan with Pakistan and, eventually, India, and has been a pet project of the Turkmen president since the mid-1990s.

But the only way to open the South Asian market to Turkmenistan’s reserves, the world’s third largest, is across Afghanistan, and decades of instability there kept the project on the drawing board.

The feasibility study for the link, carried out by the Asian Development Bank, will be completed by July 2003, after which international companies will have the chance to form a consortium to develop the project, Mr Niyazov said. A Turkish company, Chalyk Holding, has said it is ready to participate in the construction of the pipeline, he added.

Asked if the security situation in Afghanistan meant that the pipeline was now a realistic option, Mr Karzai replied: “Very much so — I believe it can be considered among the best in the region. Sure.”

Mr Niyazov on Friday invited Mr Karzai and Mr Jamali to return to Ashkabad next September to review the feasibility study and decide how to proceed.

If the line goes ahead, it will run from the Dauletabad gas field in Turkmenistan and Herat in Afghanistan before swinging across the country to Kandahar. From there it will run to Multan, with one potential future spur leading to the Gwadar port, where a gas liquefaction plant could be built, and another to New Delhi.

MORE THAN A PIPELINE: With Turkmenistan profiting from a new market and Pakistan from a new source of supply, Afghanistan stands to gain from transit fees. But Mr Karzai said he saw far more than that coming out of the line.

“It will also facilitate the construction of highways, it will improve communications, it will eventually lead to the construction of railways in the region...it’s a major undertaking for our region.”

Most Turkmen gas exports go to Russia, although there is also a small line running to Iran. Ashkabad has long wanted to develop new markets.

But instability in Afghanistan since the Soviet invasion of 1979, followed by civil war and the advent of the Taliban regime, made the project untenable.

The Taliban’s fall in late 2001 and the arrival of the Karzai administration swiftly put the plan back on the agenda, and Mr Niyazov, Mr Karzai and President Pervez Musharraf have held several meetings to push the pipeline forward.

Despite widespread cynicism over security in Afghanistan and the plausibility of rivals India and Pakistan agreeing to allow reliable gas flows across their heavily-armed border, all parties were upbeat on Friday with Mr Niyazov telling his fellow signatories: “This will increase our economic cooperation in the region and help the security situation”.

Industry experts say the pipeline, which could have a capacity of 20 billion cubic metres, will only be feasible if it supplies gas to India as well as Pakistan.

Mr Niyazov said the three leaders hoped the Indian leadership would join in the project. “We will be working on this and making every effort,” he said.

The three countries are still in talks with the ADB and other multinational lending agencies on whether the pipeline can be extended to India, according to an official in Islamabad quoted on Thursday by the specialist International Oil Daily.—Agencies