- KABUL (Reuters) - Leaders
of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkmenistan will meet in Islamabad on Thursday
to discuss a gas pipeline plan that could bring $100 million a year in
transit fees to the war-ravaged Afghan economy, officials said.
-
- Afghan officials said interim ruler Hamid Karzai would
head to Pakistan with high hopes of a deal for the construction of a 932-mile
pipeline to bring gas from huge reserves in Turkmenistan across Afghanistan
and into Pakistan.
-
- "Karzai is going with high expectations to sign
the contract," a presidential source who asked not to be identified
said. "Issues must have been settled by now and Karzai will go to
Pakistan for signing of the contract."
-
- Afghanistan's Mines and Industries Minister Mohammad
Alim Razim has already discussed details of the plan with Pakistani and
Turkmen officials in Islamabad, an official said.
-
- Government officials said they were also looking for
an agreement for the rebuilding of a main highway along the pipeline route
in the west of the country.
-
- U.S. oil company Unocal undertook feasibility studies
for the project in the late 1990s, but withdrew in 1998 because of fierce
fighting between the purist Taliban and the opposition Northern Alliance,
which held chunks of territory in northern Afghanistan at the time.
-
- International gas trader Itera said on Tuesday it had
been invited by Turkmenistan to take part in the proposed $2 billion Trans-Afghan
pipeline, which would transport 30 billion cubic meters a year of gas to
Pakistan.
-
- Turkmenistan, which relies heavily on Russian pipeline
capacity to export its huge reserves of natural gas, has touted the long-discussed
Afghan route since last year's fall of the hardline Taliban regime.
-
- Itera president Igor Makarov told Reuters in the Turkmen
capital last month that the company would take part in "this huge
political project" if it turned out to be financially viable.
-
- An Itera spokesman said the company's analysts had visited
Afghanistan twice this year.
-
- Afghan officials said they hoped work on the project
would start after the holding of a Loya Jirga, a tribal assembly which
will select a new government or extend Karzai's rule in three weeks time.
-
- Turkmenistan President Sapramurat Niyazov recently invited
Russian gas giant Gazprom to take part in the project. In 1996 Gazprom
said it was willing to buy a 15 percent share in the project but later
decided not to participate.
|
