Turkmenistan President Gurbangulu Berdymohammadov demanded to start construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline in 2015, reported the Turkmenistan TV.
In 2014 it is necessary to work out and sign all documents for TAPI construction and its construction should start in 2015, Berdymohammadov said at the session devoted to the oil and gas industry on Thursday.
In April 2014 Afghanistan Ambassador to Russia Azizulla Karzai said that Russian Gasprom GAZP+1.90% or other Russian company could take part in TAPI project.
TAPI is 1735-km-long gas pipeline. Its capacity is over 30 billion cub.m. of gas a year. Its cost is estimated at about $8 billion. It is planned to be launched in 2017.
Russia has repeatedly announced support to the project and the talks on Gasprom’s involvement in it have been going on for years. The Russian Ministry of Energy said that it hopes for either a share in the company, which is going to implement the project, or participation of the Russian companies as contractors.
In November 2013 the project partners, including Turkmengas, Afghanistan Gas Corporation, Pakistani Inter State Gas Systems and Indian Gail Limited, signed the service agreement with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which has become the transaction advisor of the project.
