Kabul to Host Next TAPI Pipeline Project Summit

Kabul will host the next TAPI gas pipeline summit within two months, Afghan business portal Wadsam reported Sunday.

The officials of the concerned nations will finalize the inception date of the project during the upcoming meeting.

Gas companies of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India have established a company that will build, own and operate the planned 1,800-kilometer Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) natural gas pipeline. Turkmengas, Afghan Gas Enterprise, Inter State Gas Systems, and GAIL (India) Limited own equal shares of the company.

The 1,735km gas pipeline is expected to stretch from the largest gas field in Turkmenistan, Galkynysh, through Afghanistan’s provinces of Herat and Kandahar to Fazilka, area located between India and Pakistan.

Pakistani newspaper Express Tribune last week reported that three companies – one each from France, Russia and China – have expressed interest in becoming the consortium leader for financing the multibillion-dollar project.

France’s Total is most likely to win the contract, media reports suggest.