Volume 3, issue #20 - 24-07-1998

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Taleban and Northern Alliance help to build Turkmenistan-Pakistan line

June 6, 1998 Afghanistan's Taleban leaders and the opposition Northern Alliance Have agreed to create a joint economic group to help build a gas pipeline from Turkmenia to Pakistan via Afghanistan.
Former Turkmen oil and gas minister Gochmurad Nazdzhanov, who is the government's co-ordinator of this project, told that during his consultations in Sheboygan, Qandahar and Islamabad at the end of May, the leaders of the warring Afghan factions finalised 2 protocols between them and Centgas (the international company Central Asian Gas Pipeline). The documents provides security guarantees for the gas pipeline and its builders, terms of building work and the participation of Afghan representatives in it.
The price and conditions of gas transportation through Afghanistan will be determined in an agreement between Centgas and the Taleban and the Northern Alliance which is now being worked out.
Turkmenia believes that these accords give hope that the construction of the pipeline may begin this year despitethe ongoing fight between the Taleban and the Northern Alliance.
This was Turkmenia's demand when Centgas was being created in October 1997. It was founded by the Turkmen government (17 %), the U.S. company UNOCAL Central Asia (36.5 %), the Saudi Delta Gas Pipeline (15 %), the Japanese company Sieko Trans-Asia Gas (13 %), South Korean Hyundai (5 %) and Pakistani Crescent Group (3.5 %). Turkmenia also has a reserve of 10 % which it plans to give to interested companies.
The pipeline will be more than 1,500 km long. It will run from the Turkmen field Dovletabadskoy, which is expected to contain about 1.3 trillion cubic metres, to the Pakistani city of Multan. Project costs are estimated at $ 2 billion.