The meeting of the Steering Committee of Turkmenistan-Afghanistan- Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project is likely to be held in Islamabad in the third week of February, a Petroleum Ministry official said. According to official, the participating countries during the last meeting in Ashgabat (Turkmenistan) in November 2014 decided to complete the multi-billion dollar project which will carry 3.5 billion Cubic Feet per Day (bcfd) gas by the end of 2018.
The officials said the upcoming meeting is expected to be attended not only by the high officials of the participating countries, but also the leading oil/gas firms of the world. "As far as Turkmenistan pipeline is concerned, all the parties have agreed to sign the gas pipeline project in 2016 and it will become operational in 2018. Now India is pushing all the countries for the early completion of the project to provide much needed and cheap energy to industries in Punjab, Haryana and Delhi," the official maintained. The participating countries have already resolved major issues related to the pipeline.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is the transaction advisor of the project. Officials told Business Recorder that two leading American companies ExxonMobil and Chevron along with French giant Total have shown interest in becoming the lead financer of TAPI, which would cost $10 billion. The gas pipeline will provide 500 Million Cubic Feet per Day (mmcfd) gas to Afghanistan and 1.325 Billion Cubic feet Per Day (bcfd) gas each to Pakistan and India. Afghanistan was earlier interested in the transit fee only, but later it signed the GSPA with Turkmenistan on July 2012 for 500 mmcfd gas.
Both Turkmenistan-Pakistan and Turkmenistan-India bilateral Gas Sales and Purchase Agreement (GSPA) were signed on May 23, 2012 followed by Turkmenistan-Afghanistan GSPA which was finally signed on July 9, 2013. The Gas Pipeline Framework Agreement (GPFA) was signed on December 11, 2010. TAPI parties agreed to form a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) as TAPI Ltd with four designated gas companies from the TAPI countries and proceed with this vehicle to undertake certain pre-project activities, including the selection of the consortium leader. TAPI will carry gas from Turkmenistan's Galkynysh field which has total gas reserves of 16 trillion cubic feet. From the field, the pipeline will run to Herat and Qandahar provinces of Afghanistan, before entering Pakistan. In Pakistan, it will reach Multan via Quetta before ending at Fazilka (Punjab) in India.