TAPI Pipeline Gets a Boost

In what is considered a big boost to the TAPI gas pipeline, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan have agreed to form a company for execution of the project, The Hindu newspaper has reported.

The final shape of the proposed company will be ready by September.

“The strategic TAPI pipeline project which will transport gas from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan, Pakistan and India has gathered momentum with the Petroleum and Energy Ministers of the four nations agreeing to form a company by end-September this year to execute the ambitious plan. Asian Development Bank (ADB) has been appointed as legal-technical consultant and it will soon identify a company which will drive the project. The company will be from a neutral country,’’ top sources in the Petroleum Ministry told The Hindu.

A decision on this issue was taken during the meeting India’s Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister, Veerappa Moily, had with Rashid Meredov, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Turkmenistan, during his visit to Ashgabat late last week, The Hindu said.

Moily was in Ashgabat to participate in the meeting of the Steering Committee on the TAPI gas pipeline project.

Following the meeting of the Steering Committee, a protocol was signed in which the parties fixed the decision on the need to prepare founding documents and the registration of the TAPI Ltd. consortium as well as signing an agreement for a transaction adviser for the TAPI project.