Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India (Tapi) gas pipeline project

• Pakistan signed a Joint Implementation Plan (JIP) with Turkmenistan to speed up work on Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India (Tapi) gas pipeline project and finish the feasibility study as soon as possible.

ABOUT TAPI PIPELINE PROJECT (‘PEACE PIPELINE’)

• The pipeline first proposed in 1995 will transport natural gas from energy rich Caspian Sea (Galkynysh gasfields: fourth largest in the world) in Turkmenistan to India through Afghanistan into Pakistan.
• Construction on the project started in Turkmenistan on December 2015. It is expected to be operational by 2019.
• It is an 1,814-kilometre pipeline that aims to transport 33 billion cubic metres of gas from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan, Pakistan and finally, India.
• The Pipeline will start from the Galkynysh gas field in Turkmenistan.
• It will then pass through Afghanistan and Pakistan to finally reach the Indian town of Fazilka(near the Indo-Pak border).
• The pipeline will transport 33 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas annually from Turkmenistan to respective buyers in Afghanistan (5%), Pakistan (47.5%) and India (47.5%) during the 30-year commercial operations period.

FUNDING

• The TAPI project is being funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which is also acting as transaction adviser for the development.
• Turkmenistan took a loan of $700m from the Islamic Development Bank for financing the project in December 2016.
• The remaining three countries made an initial investment of $200m in the TAPI project.