Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Dec. 29
By Huseyn Hasanov– Trend:
Gas distribution centers will be set up in the Afghan provinces of Herat, Kandahar and Helmand once the implementation of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project starts in 2018, Nebit-Gaz, online newspaper of the country’s Oil and Gas Complex, reported quoting the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum of Afghanistan.
It is expected that practical work on the TAPI project in Afghanistan will begin in 2018, and the pipeline’s commissioning is planned for 2019. The pipeline is scheduled to run along the Kandahar-Herat Highway in western Afghanistan, and further through the cities of Quetta and Multan in Pakistan.
The pipeline’s route will end in the Indian city of Fazilka. Construction of the Turkmen section of the TAPI gas pipeline began in December 2015. In 2013, Afghanistan released details of the gas deal with Turkmenistan, signed within the TAPI project.
“Signing of this contract may be considered as a fundamental and practical step towards the implementation of the TAPI project, thanks to which Afghanistan will meet its gas needs for the next 30 years,” the Afghan Foreign Ministry said in a press release.
Under the contract, upon completion of the TAPI pipeline’s construction, in the first ten years, Afghanistan plans to purchase up to 500 million cubic meters of Turkmen gas annually, and to bring the gas purchases to one billion cubic meters and 1.5 billion cubic meters in the subsequent second and third decades, respectively.
The design capacity of TAPI reaches 33 billion cubic meters of gas per year. However, Afghanistan plays a transit role in this project. It is expected that the annual revenue from transit will bring the country about $1 billion annually.
