Work on TAPI Pipeline to Start in December

Turkmenistan will start work on Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline by year end, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said Friday, reported news agency AP.

According to the news agency, Sharif told a meeting of business leaders in Islamabad that he would travel to Turkmenistan in December for the project’s ground-breaking ceremony, which is also to be attended by other South Asian leaders as well.

An official at Turkmengaz, the state natural gas company in Turkmenistan, confirmed to AP that all exploration and prospecting work is to be completed by 10 December.

Last month, TurkmenGaz was selected as the TAPI pipeline consortium leader. 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.