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Afghanistan counts on TAPI gas pipeline project’s implementation

Oil&Gas Materials 22 January 2020 11:30 (UTC +04:00)
Afghanistan counts on TAPI gas pipeline project’s implementation

ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan, Jan. 22

By Huseyn Hasanov– Trend:

Afghanistan expressed confidence that the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project will be completed in the near future, Trend reports referring to Russian media.

The report refers to Afghan Economy Minister Mustafa Mastoor, who touched upon this topic on the sidelines of the Caspian Week forum taking place these days in Davos.

The Afghan minister said that “all countries and international financial organizations that are involved in this project are doing an excellent job.”

Mastoor also noted that the large number of participants, as a rule, complicates the work on the project.

“However, we are confident that the project will be completed in the near future and will bring prosperity to the entire region,” said the minister. “We cannot announce more precise timeline for the completion of such major project, but Afghanistan is carrying out all the necessary technical and scientific studies and is ensuring the safety of the pipeline.”

Afghanistan’s key role in this project is transit; the annual revenue can bring about $1 billion to the country. At the same time, the instability of this country remains a serious obstacle for the project. However, Kabul says it will be able to ensure the safety of the route.

The length of the Turkmen section of the TAPI pipeline, the construction of which was launched in December 2015, will be 205 kilometers (the main operations are carried out on the 120th kilometer). The pipeline 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 city of Fazilka in India.

The construction of the Afghan section of the pipeline was initiated in February 2018, while the construction of the Pakistani section was planned to be launched till late 2019.

The pipeline’s design capacity will be 33 billion cubic meters of gas per year, and the project’s cost is estimated at about $8 billion.

The Turkmengas State Concern is the leader of the TAPI Pipeline Company Ltd. international consortium. It makes decisions regarding the investors and acts as the main financier and manager of the project. The consortium also includes Afghan Gas Corporation, Pakistan’s Inter State Gas Systems (Private) Limited Company and India’s GAIL Company.

The project is being promoted by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which acts as a project transaction advisor. TAPI's resource base will be Galkynysh, the second biggest field in the world (after South Pars in Iran).

The estimated cost of the TAPI project is about $7-8 billion.

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