The Indian Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Dr M Veerappa Moily who had a bilateral meeting with the Turkmenistan Minister for Oil and Gas Industry and Mineral Resources Mukhammetnur Khalylov here on Tuesday at the margins of the 8th Asia Gas Partnership Summit assured his counterpart of India’s help in gas pipeline infrastructure for Ashgabat city.

The two ministers reviewed the progress of the ambitious Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project. They agreed to fast track the project to see its completion by 2017-18.

Khalylov informed that the consortium leaders for TAPI project would meet soon to finalise some proposals. The Turkmenistan government will take some pending decision on certain key points.

Dr Moily informed Khalylov that India would draft some terms and conditions for the gas transportation agreement.

Chairing the theme session of the Gas Summit, Dr Moily said “lack of pipeline import infrastructure for key importers in Asia has created a reliance on LNG imports which meet 80% of import requirements. The region remains the largest LNG importer in the world accounting for 69.3% share in global LNG imports of 327.9 BCM in 2012. As a reason, Asian buyers end up paying a premium to the sellers.”

The growth in gas consumption in the emerging markets of Asia will also crucially depend upon affordability and stability at which gas is going to be sourced, he said.

“It has been observed in some recent deals that prices offered by the same seller to Europe and Asia vary greatly, beyond net back and business considerations. Asian buyers need to look into their sourcing and pricing strategies in this light and will have to emerge united in their approach. Large Asian buyers coming together may negotiate from a position of strength,” Dr Moily said.

He urged for integrating energy assets of India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Myanmar, Bhutan and Bangladesh. As Asian markets lack a transaction platform to transparently trade natural gas or LNG volumes, he suggested emergence of a trading hub in Asia which would facilitate hub indexation more linked to actual natural gas market fundamentals in the Asian region.

There are developments that are causing a paradigm shift in the global gas market like the shale gas revolution in US, bilateral pipeline gas agreements, gas importer like US turning into gas exporter, increasing LNG trading and currency volatility.

Asia-Pacific region has witnessed the fastest natural gas demand growth to reach a total of 625 BCM in 2012, while the developed natural gas markets in North America and Europe which account for about 60% of the total global gas consumption have witnessed subdued growth rates of up to 1.5% in last five years. Emerging markets in Asia like India and China have witnessed impressive double digit CAGRs in gas consumption over the last five years, but the gas consumption has yet to reach remote areas in these countries.