KABUL - Beijing wants to build a pipeline transporting natural gas to China from Turkmenistan via Tajikistan and Afghanistan, the Presidential Palace said on Wednesday.
State-run China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) Chairman Jiang Jiemin referred to the plan during a meeting with President Hamid Karzai on the sidelines of the 12th Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Beijing on Wednesday.

A statement from the Presidential Palace in Kabul said Karzai, who is in China to attend the summit, was expected to sign a strategic cooperation deal with his Chinese counterpart.
Last year, CNPC won the first oil deal in Afghanistan after signing a contract with the government to develop a small oil-field in the northern part of the country.

Under the agreement CNPC will initially invest about $400 million in the oil expl oration project that is expected to generate $7 billion in revenues for the war-torn nation.
Seeking Afghanistan's assistance, he said the firm was keen on carrying out technical and economic feasibility studies for oil and gas-fields in the Amu River basin and the proposed pipeline project.

Karzai said the two projects were of great importance and Afghanistan's stability and development was dependent on increased economic ties with China.

He asked Mines Minister Wahidullah Shahrani, also present at the meeting, to prepare a comprehensive framework for cooperation between the Afghan government and CNPC.

The meeting also decided that a CNPC delegation would visit Afghanistan next month to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Karzai administration to push the proposal. (Pajhwok)