During his visit to Ashgabat October 21-22, Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev discussed the possibility of Gazprom, Russia's state-owned gas monopoly, becoming involved in the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline, Russian and international wire services reported.
Kommersant, the Russian business daily, has more details. President Medvedev brought with him Vice Premier Igor Sechin, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and presidential aide Sergei Prikhodko. The Kremlin is so eager to get involved in TAPI that as Sechin told Kommersant, Gazprom is prepared to take part in any capacity -- "as a contractor, as a designing company, and as a full-fledged participant of the consortium." Sechin says Gazprom is willing to invest its own money in the risky project, which would involve laying pipe across Taliban-held territory in Afghanistan and Pakistan. "Not a single investor has displayed such boldness," comments Kommersant.
Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has energetically and enthusiastically promoted TAPI in recent months, bringing the TAPI ministers together at meetings in Ashgabat in anticipation of a December meeting of heads of state to finalize an agreement. The parties announced that they were prepared to bid out the job of building the pipeline to a "global energy giant"-- which was not specified, although analysts were oriented toward expecting a Western energy company.
Russia's interest in TAPI could be motivated by reluctance to see Turkmenistan bypass Moscow-dominated energy corridors to sell gas to the West, says Kommersant. Russia is said to have lost interest in the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline, which read more