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Turkmenistan-India gas pipeline project of political significance

Oil&Gas Materials 18 March 2014 14:26 (UTC +04:00)
The project construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) is a consolidating factor of political significance, the Turkmen Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources reported.

Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, March 18

By Huseyn Hasanov- Trend:

The project construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) is a consolidating factor of political significance, the Turkmen Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources reported.

'TAPI is not just a mutually beneficial energy and economic project, but also a consolidating factor of political significance with convincing evidence of balancing the interests of producers, transit countries and energy resources to consumers. The project is acquiring real features showing that the radius of its potential impact is much wider than the actual geographic route of the future highway', the report said.

It was also reported that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) acts as the Transaction Advisor of the TAPI gas pipeline project. Its main task is to form project firm TAPI Ltd. and search for a consortium leader.

TAPI Ltd will deal with the practical implementation of the project. The legal and technical issues on its creation, as well as the involvement of the world's leading companies are now being studied.

The basic document is an Ashgabat interstate agreement of the member states signed in 2010 on starting the practical implementation of the TAPI project.

The design capacity of the project is 33 billion cubic meters of gas per year. Sale and purchase agreements were signed with Indian GAIL Ltd and State Gas Systems of Pakistan in May 2012. The same agreement with the Afghan Gas Corporation was signed in July 2013. A service agreement was signed with the transaction advisor Asian Development Bank (ADB) in November 2013.

Work on forming a TAPI consortium which will provide financing and construction for the power line is underway. The parties are also considering the route of the future pipeline.

The TAPI pipe length will reach 1735 kilometres. The main line must stretch from the largest gas field in Turkmenistan, Galkynysh, through the Afghan cities of Herat and Kandahar and reach its final destination at the settlement of Fazilka, located on the border between India and Pakistan.

Turkmen press said that companies such as Chevron, Exxon Mobil, BP, BG Group, RWE and Petronas have read the project's terms and 'expressed their intention to participate'.

Translated by S.I.
Edited by S.M.

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