Pakistan signs gas import agreement with Turkmenistan

Finally, the much awaited agreement for the supply of natural gas was signed between the officials of Pakistan and Turkmenistan on Monday. The gas import agreement is a part of the $ 7.6 billion Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India
(TAPI) gas pipeline project, which is a follow-up of the inter-government agreement signed by the four neighbouring countries in December last year.

Under the TAPI project, Pakistan will receive 1.3 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas to fulfil the increasing demand on domestic and industrial level. Five agreements were signed between Pakistan and Turkmen delegation to
increase mutual cooperation in the fields of trade, energy, media and culture.

It was recently announced by the Petroleum Minister, Dr. Asim Hussain, that since President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov of Turkmenistan is on a visit to Pakistan, the terms of the gas pipeline agreement will be finalised in a couple
of days, while the formal signing might be carried out later. However, an agreement signing ceremony was held in the Prime Minister House on Monday and the deal was singed to initiate the progress as quickly as possible.

Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar and Turkmen minister Rashid Meredov signed an MoU on cooperation between the two foreign ministries and Information Firdous Ashiq Awan and Turkmen Minister for Culture Gulmurad Muradov an agreement
on cooperation between APP and Turkmen News State Service.

The Gas Sales and Purchase Agreement (GSPA) under the TAPI gas pipeline project was signed by Mubeen Saulat, the managing director of the Inter-State Gas Systems of Pakistan and Turkmenistan Gas Trade Concern’s chairman, Amanali
Hanalyev. Another agreement was signed by the Ministry of Trade from both sides to enhance trade activities between the two countries in the near future.

In an earlier meeting with President Berdimuhamedov at the Presidency, President Asif Ali Zardari had detailed discussions with the head of the neighbouring state to accelerate energy projects and bilateral trade between the two
countries. They also decided to develop direct air links between the two states to encourage the trading activities.

During their meeting at the Prime Minister’s House, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and the Turkmen president agreed to strengthen relations through increased cooperation in diverse fields.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=3590

Posted by Farhan Hameed on Nov 15 2011. Filed under Business, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry