Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 14
By Elena Kosolapova - Trend:
The feasibility study for a project to construct the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline has been completed, Chin Choon Fong, senior advisor at the Central and West Asia Department of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), told Trend Sept. 14.
ADB is a transaction advisor on the TAPI project.
"The parties are currently discussing how to move forward," he said. "Pipeline construction will begin after developmental activities have been completed, including detailed design and route survey and financing arrangements."
Earlier, Chin Choon Fong told Trend that TAPI's construction can take about three years.
The British company Penspen was involved in the feasibility study for the TAPI in line with a contract from the ADB.
In turn Penspen has concluded a subcontract with the Dutch Royal Haskoning DHV company, engaged in engineering, consulting and project management to implement important components of the feasibility study on the environmental and social guarantees.
The feasibility study was worked out for the gas pipeline with a design capacity of pumping up to 33 billion cubic meters of gas per year. It is planned that the total length of the pipeline will be 1,735 kilometers.
Some 200 kilometers will pass through the territory of Turkmenistan, 735 kilometers - Afghanistan, 800 kilometers - Pakistan up to Fazilka settlement on the border with India. The annual capacity of the gas pipeline will be 33 billion cubic meters.
The gas pipeline is to stretch from the largest Galkynysh gas field in Turkmenistan. The estimated cost of the project will be up to $10 billion, according to the Asian Development Bank.
The basic document for the promotion of TAPI is the Ashgabat interstate agreement signed between the participating states in 2010 on starting the practical implementation of this project.
Turkmengaz State Concern, Afghan Gas Corporation, Pakistan's "Inter State Gas Systems (Private) Limited" and Indian "GAIL (India) Limited" established TAPI Ltd. consortium in November 2014. It will be engaged in construction and subsequent operation of the TAPI gas pipeline.
Turkmenistan's Turkmengaz state concern was selected he consortium's leader in August 2015.
TAPI project has been discussed for over 10 years already.
The project's feasibility study was worked out in 2008. However, the project's implementation was cancelled for several times due to the security problems in the transit countries.
