<p>The Central Asian nation of Turkmenistan, which sits atop the world's fourth-biggest natural gas reserves, is looking to diversify energy supplies and is pushing to revive plans to build a pipeline to deliver gas from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to Pakistan and India.<br />Russia's top energy official, Igor Sechin, told reporters Gazprom was ready to participate in it as a contractor, designer or consortium member, Kommersant business daily reported, referring to the so-called Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline.<br />Sechin accompanied President Dmitry Medvedev on a two-day visit to Turkmenistan earlier this week.<br /><br />"If Gazprom becomes a participant then we will study possibilities of working in gas sales," Sechin was quoted as saying.<br /><br />"No investor has shown such boldness yet," said the report, noting Gazprom was willing to sink money into a "rather risky project" to weaken Europe's efforts to build a pipeline that would bypass Russia.<br /><br />In 2002, regional governments agreed to build a,700-kilometre (1,060-mile) pipeline to deliver Turkmen gas to Pakistan and India via Afghanistan but the project stalled because of the raging Taliban insurgency.<br /><br />The project has gained momentum following a series of recent high-level talks and an August agreement between Turkmenistan and Afghanistan to move the project forward.<br />Analysts have long said that gas giant Gazprom is a political tool and sometimes the sole purpose of its international deals is to cripple a rival project at the expense of economic sense.</p>
<p>The Central Asian nation of Turkmenistan, which sits atop the world's fourth-biggest natural gas reserves, is looking to diversify energy supplies and is pushing to revive plans to build a pipeline to deliver gas from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to Pakistan and India.<br />Russia's top energy official, Igor Sechin, told reporters Gazprom was ready to participate in it as a contractor, designer or consortium member, Kommersant business daily reported, referring to the so-called Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline.<br />Sechin accompanied President Dmitry Medvedev on a two-day visit to Turkmenistan earlier this week.<br /><br />"If Gazprom becomes a participant then we will study possibilities of working in gas sales," Sechin was quoted as saying.<br /><br />"No investor has shown such boldness yet," said the report, noting Gazprom was willing to sink money into a "rather risky project" to weaken Europe's efforts to build a pipeline that would bypass Russia.<br /><br />In 2002, regional governments agreed to build a,700-kilometre (1,060-mile) pipeline to deliver Turkmen gas to Pakistan and India via Afghanistan but the project stalled because of the raging Taliban insurgency.<br /><br />The project has gained momentum following a series of recent high-level talks and an August agreement between Turkmenistan and Afghanistan to move the project forward.<br />Analysts have long said that gas giant Gazprom is a political tool and sometimes the sole purpose of its international deals is to cripple a rival project at the expense of economic sense.</p>