ISLAMABAD, April 23: Petroleum ministers of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India made “some headway” in talks held on Wednesday to work out a framework for the $6 billion TAPI gas pipeline project.

A source at the ministry of petroleum and natural resources told Dawn after the meeting that Turkmenistan’s petroleum minister had “succeeded in convincing the participants” that his country had sufficient gas reserves for the project.

The meeting found the project “bankable” and the parties will proceed on the premise on Thursday.

The source said that Indian participation in the project was encouraging and now there was no “discomfort”.

The ministers also discussed the formation of a consortium to finance the project and matters relating to the tariffs.

“Things are moving in right direction as the Asian Development Bank, which has convened the meeting, is also encouraging the four countries to go for the project,” the source said.

He said the Turkmenistan minister had denied that Russian oil and gas giant Gazprom was being given exclusive rights to export his country’s gas to Europe.

The 2,000km TAPI gas pipeline is a parallel project that India and Pakistan are also discussing simultaneously.

The ADB, the source said, was taking interest in reviving the dormant 2,000km pipeline project to tide over the energy crisis in the region.

However, the TAPI project is still facing various challenges. The source said that the security situation in Afghanistan and relations between Pakistan and India needed to be improved and fuel subsidies in the two countries would have to be phased out.

The 56-inch diameter pipeline needs at least 30 billion cubic metres (BCM) of gas per year from Turkmenistan to reach Pakistan via Afghanistan.

Earlier, Pakistan and India had agreed to finalise their much-delayed bilateral tariff and transit fee issues to pave the way for high-level talks on the project. Technical teams of two countries had met in Islamabad from April 16 to 18 to firm up their recommendations to place before their petroleum ministers.