Turkmenistan’s state-owned company TurkmenGaz will lead the (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) TAPI consortium for the construction of 1800 kilometer long pipeline carrying gas from the former Soviet state Turkmenistan to India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
- After the meeting of the 22nd Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) steering committee in Ashgabat by ministers from the four countries, this decision was taken.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to energy-rich Turkmenistan in July the TAPI pipeline project was also discussed.
- The Asian Development Bank is the lead partner in the 1,800 km pipeline project
- The project will be expected to launch in December 2015, while gas deliveries to India via the new pipeline are likely to start in 2018.
- India is the world’s fourth largest energy consumer, imports 80% of its crude oil and 25% of its natural gas requirements. Petroleum product consumption in India grew 3.14% to around 163.17 million tonnes in 2014-15.
TAPI Pipeline:
• The Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline is also known as Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India (TAPI) pipeline.
• The pipeline will transport Caspian Sea natural gas from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan into Pakistan and then to India.
• Originally the cost of the pipeline project was reportedly estimated at $7.6 billion, but a more recent estimate was $10 billion.
• The pipeline will be 1,420 millimeters (56 in) in diameter with a working pressure of 100 standard atmospheres (10,000 kPa).
• The initial capacity will be 27 billion cubic meters (950 billion cubic feet) of natural gas per year of which 2 billion cubic meters (71 billion cubic feet) will be provided to Afghanistan and 12.5 billion cubic meters (440 billion cubic feet) to each Pakistan and India.