Turkmenistan Confident of Selecting TAPI Consortium Leader by September

Turkmenistan expects the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline consortium leader to be selected by September, the Central Asian country's ambassador to India told Sputnik Tuesday.

“By September 1, the government of Turkmenistan [is] committed to producing the final results of the selection of a consortium and the leader of the consortium… By the end of the year, you will see a lot of change in this project,” Parahat Durdyev said.

Durdyev said his nation is committed to the TAPI project and seeks to speed up its implementation adding that the project launch is expected to take place in December 2015, while gas deliveries to India via the new pipeline are likely to start in 2018, Sputnik reported.

“Turkmenistan can provide energy for India's development and the Indian economy in the future,” Durdyev said.

Last year, gas companies of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India established a company that will build, own and operate the planned 1,800-kilometer TAPI natural gas pipeline. The pipeline will export up to 33 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India over 30 years.