Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Dec. 12
By Huseyn Hasanov - Trend:
The work on the implementation of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline will begin in the next three months, the "Oil and Gas Complex of Turkmenistan" reported with reference to the information of the Afghan Ministry of Mines and Petroleum.
In October, the ministry announced that the trans-national gas pipeline, which is being built in Turkmenistan, will reach the Afghan border in Herat by January 2018. The pipeline will be 1,735 kilometers long and have the capacity of transferring 33 billion cubic meters of gas from Turkmenistan to Pakistan and India through Herat, Farah, Helmand and Nimroz provinces of Afghanistan.
The ministry said that Afghanistan is ready to secure the implementation of the project in Afghanistan’s territory.
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 be 33 billion cubic meters. 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 constructing its TAPI section in December 2015 and the construction is expected to take three years. The total length of the TAPI pipeline will be 1,814 kilometers. A 214-kilometer section of the pipeline will run through Turkmenistan, a 774-kilometer section will run through Afghanistan and an 826-kilometer section will run through Pakistan.