The government of Turkmenistan has requested Pakistan to organise inaugural ceremony of Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project in March 2019.
Chief Executive Officer TAPI Pipeline Company Ltd, Muhammetmyrat Amanov made this request to Minister for Petroleum & Natural Resources Ghulam Sarwar Khan in a meeting held here at the Ministry of Petroleum on Friday. The meeting discussed the pipeline project and mutual collaboration among the four countries. "At the inaugural ceremony, the heads of states of all four countries should be requested to attend the formality," visiting CEO TAPI Pipeline Company requested Pakistan.
The federal minister stressed that this project should be completed at the earliest as first inter-government agreement of TAPI was signed in 2010.
On February 22, 2017, former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani launched a 1,814 kilometres (1,130 miles) gas pipeline to feed Turkmenistan gas to Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. The first part of inauguration took place in Turkmenistan, on the border with Afghanistan's western province of Herat, followed by a ceremony in Afghanistan. The total pipe length is 1680 km (from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan and Pakistan up to Pak-India border). The total gas volume is 3.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day. The estimated cost of the project is $8.5 billion.
Turkmengaz was nominated as consortium leader in August 2015 with 85 percent shareholding and Pakistan, India and Afghanistan having 5 percent shares each.
Earlier, Ghulam Sarwar Khan had said that the government would complete the TAPI gas pipeline project during its tenure. A memorandum of understanding between Turkmenistan and Pakistan for further cooperation in the fields of fuel and energy was signed on March 16, 2017 which is valid for five years.
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