BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 11. Turkmenistan and Afghanistan signed a memorandum of understanding on the purchase of gas under the TAPI project in Herat Province.
This was reported in a press release issued by the Office of the Prime Minister of Afghanistan.
The memorandum was signed in Torghundi between Afghanistan's state-owned Afghan Gas Company and Turkmenistan's Türkmengaz Company in the presence of Afghanistan's Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar Akhund and Chairman of Turkmenistan's Halk Maslahaty (Parliament) Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov.
“The gas price, the determination of gas demand levels, and the gas distribution process will be specified under the memorandum,” the publication said.
The agreement covers key commercial parameters for Afghanistan's gas purchases under the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) project.
Meanwhile, the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline is a planned 1,800-kilometer natural gas pipeline designed to transport up to 33 billion cubic meters of gas annually from Turkmenistan’s giant Galkynysh field to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India. Ashgabat views the project as one of the main routes for diversifying gas exports and strengthening regional economic integration.
The gas resource base for TAPI is the Galkynysh field, one of the world's largest gas deposits with estimated reserves exceeding 27 trillion cubic meters. In April 2026, Turkmengaz and China's CNPC launched the fourth phase of the field's development. The project involves the construction of new production facilities and the drilling of wells, which will enable the additional production of up to 10 billion cubic meters of commercial gas per year.
In early June, the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School noted in its analysis that the TAPI gas pipeline is being re-anchored in regional energy discussions as a structured mechanism for regional energy flows, connecting Turkmenistan’s gas resources with demand centers in South Asia.
