TAPI Countries to Meet in Dubai Next Month

Representatives from TAPI countries will meet in Dubai next month to discuss pending issues so that work on the pipeline could begin by year-end, reported Pakistani newspaper Business Recorder Saturday.

Sources have told the newspaper that Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) countries will discuss matters relating to preparing of feasibility report of the pipeline, its security requirements and financing issues during July 7-9.

"During the Dubai talks the parties will discuss the selection of the consortium that will finance the TAPI gas pipeline project. The parties are likely to finalise the consortium by September 1, 2015 and wanted to start working on the project by December 2015. The project will be completed within three years,” the sources told Business Recorder. 

Last year, gas companies of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India established a company that will build, own and operate the planned 1,800-kilometer TAPI natural gas pipeline. The pipeline will export up to 33 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India over 30 years.