Islamabad: Turkmenistan has asked Pakistan to hold the inauguration ceremony of Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project in March 2019, a news source reported. A meeting in this regard took place between TAPI Pipeline Company Ltd CEO Muhammetmyrat Amanov and Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Ghulam Sarwar Khan.
Amanov said heads of states of all four member countries should be requested to attend the inauguration ceremony. He also discussed the project’s timeline and other formalities.
On his part, Petroleum Minister Khan said the TAPI pipeline project should be completed at the earliest as the first inter-government agreement was signed in 2010.
The project would be completed in two phases; funds for Phase I would be secured using long-term debt sourced from a mixture of multilateral development agencies, export credit agencies and commercial banks.
Pipeline will be constructed in the first phase, whereas six compressors will be installed in the second phase. The project would commence in the first quarter of 2019. Under the project, Pakistan and India each would get 1.325 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd), while Afghanistan would be provided 0.5 bcfd.
