New Delhi and Ashgabat will on Saturday sign a historic pact that would give India a footing equal to the Chinese in Turkmenistan. The MoU would open avenues for bilateral cooperation between the two countries in the upstream and downstream hydro-carbon activities. Though Turkmenistan has offered off-shore exploration blocks to India, only China has been given a discovered field for development which would supply 30 billion cubic metres of natural gas to China over 30 years. India wants a similar dispensation and at a meeting with the head of the State Agency for Management and Use of Hydro-Carbon Resources in Turkmenistan, Bymurat Muradov, last November, Pertoleum Minister Murali Deora has sought a comprehensive MoU that would allow Indian companies to invest in hydro-carbon technologies. The all-inclusive MoU would provide for development of liquefaction facilities, LNG ports, building refineries, setting up city gas distribution and petro-chemical plants in Turkmenistan in return for discovered fields. Sources said the MoU could be an alternative to the proposed TAPI gas pipeline with substantial benefits to Turkmenistan in terms of its developments and particularly development of its oil industry. An indication to this effect was given by Vice-President Mohd Hamid Ansari, who is on his first visit abroad after assuming office last year. "One view is that nothing can happen because our passage (through Pakistan) is blocked. But I am not thinking of today or of yesterday. I am looking at tomorrow and day after tomorrow. These countries are our logical, obvious and critical choices. As our capability goes up, our capacity to cooperate with them will go up,' he told reporters on-board the special flight. "You should be in a position to take advantage of the evolving situations. They are the producing countries, we are the markets. We want to tap all sources. We are a growing economy and we need more and more energy,' said Ansari, who is on a week-long visit to Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. With China increasing its presence in the region, and also entrancing its hold in the oil rich countries of Africa, India is racing to tap the huge potential of Central Asia that could emerge as an alternative energy hub of the world.