Azernews.Az

By Nigar Abbasova

The TAPI Pipeline Company Limited, created to construct the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline, continues active negotiations with all the parties desiring to join the project.

The Turkmen online newspaper Nebit-Gaz reported that various options, including taking part in the company’s share, project financing, funding through international development banks and with the help of export credit agencies, are currently being studied.

As of today, the TAPI Pipeline Company Limited comprises gas companies of the participating countries.

The Oil and Gas Complex of Turkmenistan earlier said that Ashgabat is ready to provide certain volumes of gas in the TAPI pipeline on the swap scheme to foreign companies that produce gas on the Turkmen shelf should they enter the TAPI Pipeline Company Limited consortium.

Besides, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov earlier offered the business circles of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Germany and other countries to take part in the implementation of the project.

Turkmenistan’s Turkmengas State Concern was appointed the leader of the consortium in August of 2015. The capacity of the TAPI pipeline is expected to stand at 33 billion cubic meters of gas per year, and its total length will amount to 1,814 kilometers. It is planned to commission the pipeline in December 2019.

Construction of the Turkmen section of TAPI was launched on December 13, 2015, while the main document for the TAPI, known as the Ashgabat Interstate Agreement, was signed in 2010.

The total length of the TAPI pipeline will stand at 1,814 kilometers with a 214-kilometer section running through Turkmenistan, a 774-kilometer section through Afghanistan and an 826-kilometer section through Pakistan. The $10 billion project is aimed to carry 33 bcm of gas to the participant countries by 2021.

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Nigar Abbasova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @nigyar_abbasova

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