Stakeholders to review TAPI project’s progress this month

ISLAMABAD: Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India (TAPI) will be meeting in Dubai in June to review progress on the multi-billion dollars gas pipeline project, TAPI, and work on its financial close.

Groundbreaking of the project was jointly performed by presidents Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov of Turkmenistan and Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Indian Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari in December 2015 in Turkmenistan, from where the pipeline would start.

“TAPI parties are planning to meet in Dubai next month to review the project status and work on the financial close of the project,” Managing Director Inter-State Gas Systems (ISGS) Mobin Saulat told APP on Wednesday, while sharing updates on the project.

He was part of the delegation, led by Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Resources Jam Kamal, which attended a two-day 8th Turkmenistan International Gas Congress held in Turkmenistan’s Avaza on May 23-24. 

The forum was attended by 326 delegates from 36 countries, representing 121 companies and organisations, including heads of 10 representative delegations from Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Belgium, Georgia, South Korea, Afghanistan, Philippine, Pakistan and Turkey, with an aim to focus on adopting effective strategies and new technologies to meet future energy needs.

Saulat, during the international conference, highlighted importance of the project and progress made on it so far. He informed the session that the process of initiating front-end-engineering-and-design route survey had been started in Pakistan in March this year.

Under the project, a 56-inch diameter 1,680-kilometre pipeline, having capacity to flow 3.2 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) gas, would be laid from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan and Pakistan up to Pak-India border, which is scheduled to be completed in the year 2020.

Through the pipeline, Pakistan and India would be provided 1.325 bcfd gas each and Afghanistan would be getting 0.5 bcfd.

MD ISGS said Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Resources Jam Kamal, at an opening session of the conference, apprised the participants about Pakistan’s economic development and efforts to meet its growing energy needs, including accelerated oil and gas
exploration activities and import of liquefied natural gas.