Islamabad: Pakistan and Turkmenistan will sign an agreement regarding the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) Gas Pipeline project next week, a news source quoted Minister for Petroleum Ghulam Sarwar Khan. A delegation from Turkmenistan is due in Islamabad this week for talks on security and technical framework.
The minister said TAPI gas project was in its advanced stages and the execution would commence in the first quarter of 2019. He added that the gas would be comparatively cheaper than the LNG imported from Qatar.
The federal government had already allocated funds in the federal budget for the pipeline project. Under the project, Pakistan and India each would get 1.325 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd), while Afghanistan would be provided 0.5bcfd.
TAPI’s consortium leader, TurkmenGas Company, would contribute up to 85% of equity, and the rest of TAPI members namely Afghanistan, Pakistan and India would take 5% of equity share each in the project company.
The countries would import their share of gas from the Galkynysh and adjacent gas fields in Turkmenistan. Afghanistan would be the first to get its share, followed by Pakistan and India.
TAPI Pipeline Company Chief Executive Muhammetmyrat Amanov had earlier said that the cost of the pipeline had been reduced to USD 7 billion from USD 10 billion, while the first stage will cost just USD 5 billion.
