Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, April 5
By Huseyn Hasanov– Trend:
Saudi Arabia may support the financing of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project, Trend reports with reference to the Saudi newspaper Al-Riyadh.
Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources of Saudi Arabia Khalid Al-Falih said that the company Saudi Aramco believes that gas reserves concentrated in Turkmenistan are among the biggest ones in the world.
The company is studying the issue of supporting financing for the project of a giant pipeline from Turkmenistan, which will be connected to India through a number of countries, the minister added.
“Saudi Arabia’s support of gas exports from Turkmenistan to India is the biggest shift in world trade of liquefied natural gas (LNG) for India,” the minister said.
Al-Riyadh notes that Saudi Arabia as a whole promotes joint investments in the countries of the Caspian region in the sectors of petrochemistry, oil, gas, mining, renewable energy and others.
Earlier it was reported that Saudi Aramco is considering the possibility of investing in the production of oil and gas in Turkmenistan.
The King of Saudi Arabia Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud in his letter to President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov a year ago drew attention to the fact that the Saudi Fund for Development supported the construction of the TAPI gas pipeline.
Construction of the Turkmen section of the TAPI gas pipeline has been underway since December 2015, work has recently begun on the Afghan section. This year is scheduled to begin work in Pakistan.
Construction of the Turkmen section of TAPI was launched in December 2015, while the Afghan section in February 2018. Pakistan plans to start the work on its pipeline section this year.
The total length of the pipeline, with a capacity of 33 billion cubic meters of gas per year will be 1,840 kilometers. The length of the Turkmen section will be 205 kilometers.
Then, this 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 settlement of Fazilka in India.