Tapi Financial Closure Early Next Year: Press

The Tapi Pipeline Company (TPCL) is expected to achieve financial closure for the $10bn four-nation Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (Tapi) pipeline project by early next year, Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) reported September 12.

“Pakistan is committed to start practical work on its section of the pipeline at earliest and complete it within the stipulated time frame,” a senior official told the news agency.

He told APP that a high-level delegation from Turkmenistan; comprising chairman board of directors of TPCL Muhammetmyrat Amanov, Turkmen ambassador to Pakistan Atadjan Movlamov and TPCL manager (Pakistan Branch) Batyr Berdiyev, recently held a meeting with Pakistan’s energy minister Omar Ayub Khan and discussed different aspects of the project.

Tapi is planned to be 1,814 km long, of which 214 km run through Turkmenistan, 774 km through Afghanistan, and 826 km through Pakistan to the border with India. Work on the Afghan section of the Tapi pipeline started in February last year, with a groundbreaking ceremony taking place in Herat city. 

The much-delayed pipeline aims to transfer 33bn m³/yr of gas from Turkmenistan’s giant Galkynysh gas field to participating countries by 2020. However, many believe the security situation in Afghanistan could yet derail the project.