Baku, Azerbaijan, July 28
By Elena Kosolapova - Trend:
Pakistan plans to get the first supplies of Turkmen gas in 2020, Pakistani media outlets quoted Pakistani Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi as saying.
The gas will be pumped by Turkmenistan –Afghanistan- Pakistan- India (TAPI) gas pipeline, which is currently under construction.
The minister said that Pakistan would only pay for the consumed gas, while India would pay royalty to Pakistan.
Abbasi said the government had given a guarantee of 336 billion Pakistani rupees ($1 = 105 Pakistani rupees) for the TAPI project.
Commenting on Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project, the minister said there were still some international restriction on Iran, which was causing delay in start of the much-awaited project.
TAPI will make it possible to deliver gas from Turkmenistan, which ranks fourth in the world for its gas reserves, to large and promising markets of South and Southeast Asia. The pipeline will run from Galkynysh – the largest gas field in Turkmenistan – through the Afghan cities of Herat and Kandahar, and finally reach the Fazilka settlement located near the India-Pakistan border.
Annual capacity of the gas pipeline will reach 33 billion cubic meters. Total length of the TAPI pipeline will be 1,814 kilometers. The project's preliminary cost is estimated at $10 billion. The Turkmen government said earlier that the state concern Turkmengas would be the main investor for the TAPI project.
Turkmenistan started construction of its section of TAPI in December 2015 and it is expected it will take three years. Time frame of the Afghan and Pakistani sections construction of the TAPI pipeline has not been determined yet.
However the TAPI Pipeline Company Limited consortium developing the project has signed a contract with German ILF Beratende Ingenieure GmbH for the provision of services for the preliminary design and management of the project in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The technical work in the territory of these states has already started.