Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, July 1
By Huseyn Hasanov – Trend:
The Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project is planned to be presented and the corresponding exhibition is planned to be organized in New York on July 18, 2018, the Turkmen Dovlet Khabarlary (TDH) state news agency reported.
The event will be held within Turkmenistan's participation in the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development under the aegis of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), which is scheduled for July. Turkmenistan was elected to the ECOSOC for the period 2019-2021.
The issues of providing the population with water resources and rational water use, access to reliable, stable and modern energy sources, as well as environmental issues, including combating desertification, preserving biodiversity are expected to be considered during the meetings this year.
Earlier it was reported that a road show on financing issues is planned to be organized from July to familiarize with the TAPI gas pipeline project and hold negotiations. Several meetings have already been held with a number of export credit agencies, namely, ECA (including SACE, Hermes and ECIO), which expressed support for the project.
In turn, work is underway with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which plans to support the project in two ways, namely, sovereign financing, covering part of equity capital; and direct financing of the project company.
According to the experts, the possible costs for the TAPI project range from $7 billion.
The project was originally conceived in the 1990s, with the aim of monetizing Turkmenistan's huge natural gas reserves. Since 2007, the contractual and legal framework has been consistently updated.
In 2013, the governments of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India appointed state gas companies, respectively, Turkmengaz, the Afghanistan Gas Company, Inter State Gas Systems (Private) Limited and the company GAIL (India) Limited to promote the project and investments in the TAPI project.
In November 2014, the company TAPI Pipeline Company Limited was established.
The TAPI project, a pipeline length of 1,840 kilometers, is designed to deliver natural gas from Turkmenistan to India. The project is planned to be implemented in two phases, and after full commissioning, it will export up to 33 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year for 30 years.
"Turkmengaz" is actively working on the development of part of the Galkynysh deposit, which will serve as a raw material base for the pipeline.