Afghanistan Confident of TAPI Success

Afghanistan’s mines and petroleum ministry last week said that all necessary arrangements are in place to take the work forward on the much delayed Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India (Tapi) gas pipeline project in the country, reported TOLO News March 10.

“There are no challenges in the way of implementing this project. We have our technical teams in this respect,” spokesperson for ministry of mines and petroleum Abdul Qadeer Mutfi said March 9.

Work on the Afghan section of the Tapi pipeline started late last month with the groundbreaking ceremony taking place in Herat city. The ceremony was attended by Afghan and Turkmen presidents, Ashraf Ghani and Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, along with Pakistan's prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and India's junior foreign affairs minister MJ Akbar.

Turkmenistan, which will supply gas to Afghanistan, Pakistan and India with an 85% stake in the $10bn project, started work on its territory in 2015. The pipeline is projected to transfer 33bn m³/yr of gas from Turkmenistan’s giant Galkynysh gas field to participating countries by 2020, a year later than the initial plan.

The total length of Tapi will be 1,814 km, of which 214 km run through Turkmenistan; 774 km through Afghanistan; and 826 km through Pakistan to the border with India.

Although things have lately moved forward after years of delay, and despite the confidence being shown by the Afghan government, experts believe implementation of the project will be extremely challenging due to the security situation in the war-ravaged country; and alternative sources of gas for India.