The four countries planning a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Pakistan and India via Afghanistan will in September pick a company to lead construction paving the way to the start of work on the project, the Turkmen president said.
Turkmenistan, a central Asian nation of 5.5 million, holds the world’s fourth-largest natural gas reserves and sees the TAPI pipeline, named after the countries it is designed to cross, as a way of boosting exports. It has won support from the United States but security concerns and costs estimated at $10 billion have caused delays.
“At this moment negotiations are entering the final stage, a consortium leader will be named in September, after which the implementation of the project will begin,” President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said during talks with visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A Turkmen government official, who asked not be named, said construction work could start in December. Companies involved in the talks have not been named.
The 1,735 km (1,084 mile) pipeline, with a proposed annual capacity of 33 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas, will run more than 700 km across Afghanistan on its way to Pakistan and India, raising questions about the stability of shipments via the chronically unstable country.
Berdymukhamedov said the pipeline would attract $1 billion in investments to Afghanistan and create 12,000 jobs. Neighbouring Iran also buys small volumes of Turkmen gas.