Project leaders in New Delhi confirmed Friday parties to a multilateral gas pipeline from Turkmenistan will work to find a project operator by February.

The four parties to the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India natural gas pipeline want to have a credible operator in place for the $10 billion project by the time members of the steering committee meet again in Islamabad in February.

"All sides agreed that steps will be taken to start the project by 2015," project leaders said in a statement.

French energy company Total was mentioned as a possible consortium leader, though it balked after Turkmenistan refused to offer it a stake in the Galkynysh natural gas field near the border of Afghanistan. It's one of the largest gas fields in the world, with an estimated 925 trillion cubic feet of reserves, and is designated to feed the multilateral pipeline.

None of the state-led companies in either of the countries involved have the financial base to steer development of the 1,000-mile gas pipeline.

Project members last year met in Turkmenistan to sign an advisory services agreement, which cleared the way for the Asian Development Bank to develop the consortium needed to build the pipeline.

TAPI, described as part of the "new Silk Road," is favored by the United States and its allies over a similar, but long delayed, natural gas pipeline stretching east from Iran.

Gas should reach terminal country India by 2017.