The first meeting by officials from Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India concerning plans for a multi-national pipeline was held Friday.

During the meeting, they appointed Mobin Saulat, managing director of Inter State Gas Systems, to lead the meeting.

TAPI Pipeline Company Limited (TPCL) was established earlier this month to operate the 1,118-mile pipeline that will run through the four partner nations.

“Our first board meeting gave all four shareholders the chance to consider an action plan to realize our ambitious goals for this pipeline to promote energy security, growth and development in our four countries,” Saulat said.

As the transaction supervisor, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) oversaw the establishment of the companies' integration from each partner nation.

According to the ADB, the pipeline will export a maximum of 33 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Turkmenistan through the remaining three countries in the partnership: Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.