26 Apr : India has proposed to set up a Rs 8,000 crore fertiliser plant in Turkmenistan and has mooted an ‘International Gas Highway’ to take the fuel from the Central Asian nation to deficit countries like India.
Petroleum Secretary R S Pandey, on a two-day visit to the gas-rich Central Asian country on 23rd- 24th April, proposed to set up a 1-2 million tonne fertiliser plant.Besides investing in the fertiliser plants, Indian firms like state-run GAIL India are also interested in setting up a mega petrochemicals plant in Turkmenistan, he said.
The two projects are, however, dependent on Turkemenistan making available feedstock natural gas at competitive rates.The Turkemenistan government made no commitments on giving natural gas for the projects.
"The Secretary met Tachberdi Tagiev, Deputy Prime Minister in charge of Oil and Gas, and Annaguly Deryaev, Minister of Oil and Gas, to discuss issues of bilateral interest," an official press statement said in New Delhi.
India had a year ago joined the Turkemenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan gas pipeline to source gas from the Central Asian country but no meeting of the four nations has taken place since then to formalise the USD 7 billion project.