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ADB may provide financial advice for TAPI pipeline company

Oil&Gas Materials 31 October 2018 13:34 (UTC +04:00)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct.31

By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:

Regional power interconnection projects such as the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) natural gas pipeline project will be the primary vehicles of Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) support to diversify Turkmenistan’s power and natural gas export markets to South Asia, ADB told Trend.

“ADB has been instrumental for TAPI’s progress to date, serving as the TAPI secretariat since 2003 and, more recently, acted as transaction advisor,” said the bank.

Going forward, ADB will continue to support the project, including the possibility of providing financial advice, financing shareholder equity in TAPI pipeline company, and non-sovereign loans, and credit enhancement, said the bank.

ADB further said it is also considering a project to strengthen Turkmenistan’s transmission infrastructure to improve the reliability of power supply and promote electricity trade in the region. “The project will go to ADB’s Board of Director’s for approval later this year.”

On Feb. 23, 2018, a solemn ceremony was held to begin construction of the Afghan section of TAPI, which will export the gas from the Galkynysh field in Turkmenistan, the second largest in the world.

The cost of the TAPI project ranges at $8-10 billion.

Total length of the TAPI gas pipeline, with a design capacity of 33 billion cubic meters of gas per year, is approximately 1,840 kilometers. The length of the Turkmen section, which began to be built in December 2015, will be 205 kilometers.

Then, this energy bridge will pass through the Afghan cities of Herat and Kandahar (816 kilometers), through the cities of Quetta and Multan across Pakistani territory (819 kilometers), and reach the settlement of Fazilka in India.

Implementation of the TAPI project is expected to take two years. The Pakistani government plans to sign a memorandum of understanding with an unnamed German company for execution of the project in Pakistan.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn

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