ADB may consider providing financial support for TAPI

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) may consider providing financial support for the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan- Pakistan- India (TAPI) gas pipeline project when requested, a source in the ADB's Department of External Relations told Trend.

"ADB continues to be in discussion regarding its role taking the [TAPI] project forward in all aspects," the source said.

The source reminded that ADB has served as the TAPI transaction advisor since 2013 and has already provided more than $4 million in technical assistance grants to date for the project's pre-feasibility studies, risk analysis and mitigation, legal advice, market analyses, and security studies, among others.

Meanwhile the source noted that the TAPI is a large project which will require a strong coalition of financiers and the TAPI Pipeline Company Limited consortium implementing the project will engage financial institutions to arrange the necessary financing which is likely to be a mix of equity and debt financing provided and/or credit enhanced by multilateral, regional and bilateral development agencies, export credit agencies, and commercial financial institutions.

"Contribution of each party will be determined once we know the total project cost upon completion of the detailed design and due diligence process," the source said.

TAPI gas pipeline will make it possible to deliver gas from Turkmenistan, which ranks fourth in the world on biggest gas reserves, to large and promising markets of South and Southeast Asia. The pipeline is to run from Galkynysh - the largest gas field in Turkmenistan - through the Afghan cities of Herat and Kandahar, and finally reach the Fazilka settlement located near the India-Pakistan border.

The annual capacity of the gas pipeline will reach 33 billion cubic meters. It is planned that the total length of the TAPI pipeline will be 1,814 kilometers. Some 214 kilometers will pass through the territory of Turkmenistan, 774 kilometers - Afghanistan, 826 kilometers - Pakistan.

The project's preliminary cost is estimated at $10 billion. The Turkmen government reported earlier that the state concern Turkmengaz would be the main investor for the TAPI project.

Turkmenistan started construction of its section of TAPI pipeline in Dec. 2015 and it is expected it will take three years. Time frame of the Afghan and Pakistani sections construction of the TAPI pipeline has not been determined yet.

However last week President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov signed a decree on the allocation of more than $45 million to finance the initial stage of construction of the Afghan-Pakistan segment of the TAPI Pipeline.

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