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billions of dollars in funding. It faces significant security problems as the Western Nato alliance plans to hand control of Afghanistan to Kabuls own security forces by the middle of next year. Turkmenistans state gas company Turkmengaz signed gas sales and purchase agreements with Pakistans Inter State Gas Systems and Indian state-run utility GAIL. The implementation of this project will give a powerful impetus to the social and economic development of all the participant countries, Turkmen Deputy Prime Minister Baimurad Hojamukhamedov said before the signing ceremony in Avaza on the Caspian Sea. India and Pakistan are both hungry for gas supplies and Turkmenistan, formerly part of the Soviet Union, is keen to free itself from reliance on gas exports to Russia. Lilit Gevorgyan, analyst at IHS Global Insight, said that while the pipeline could be a lucrative commercial project, it would run through more than one high security risk country, which puts the actual construction under a big question mark. The idea of the TAPI pipeline, an acronym formed from the initials of the four countries through which it would pass, was first raised in the mid-1990s but construction has yet to begin. Turkmen officials have said the proposed 1,735-km pipeline could carry 1 trillion cubic metres of gas over a 30-year period, or 33 billion cubic metres a year. Turkmenistan, a desert country of 5.5 million which borders Iran, is viewed by human rights bodies as one of the worlds most secretive and repressive countries. But Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, who has a growing personality cult, has moved in recent years to warm ties with the West, whose political support and investment he needs to lay alternative gas export routes.
Strained ties between nuclear powers India and Pakistan is another source of concern. Given the animosity between the two countries, if TAPI is ever to be built it is likely to be a high-value target in Pakistan, where a number of religious fundamentalist groups will ensure that no energy supply enters India through their territory, Gevorgyan wrote. In Avaza, Pakistani Petroleum and Natural Resources Minister Asim Hussain showed optimism. We will forget our past, he said. Let bygone be bygone and lets move into the future. Turkmenistan is promoting TAPI as a key element in plans to boost annual gas exports to 180 billion cubic metres by 2030. BP data show Turkmenistans natural gas reserves equal to those of Saudi Arabia and behind only Russia, Iran and Qatar. The country aims to supply gas from its Galkynysh field, better known by its previous name, South Iolotan. Auditor Gaffney, Cline & Associates has ranked the field the worlds second largest, with gas reserves of between 13.1 trillion and 21.2 trillion cubic metres. The Indian government said in a statement on May 17 that the pipeline would be operational in 2018. India and Pakistan would each get 38 million cubic metres per day (mcmd) of gas, while the remaining 14 mcmd would be supplied to Afghanistan, it said.