Turkmenistan: TAPI Deal "Imminent"

Turkmenistan expects to soon sign a long-delayed agreement to sell natural gas to Pakistan and India via a Trans-Afghan pipeline. 

The nation's Oil and Gas Minister Bayramgeldy Nedirov said that he has "no doubts" that the proposed Turkmenistan to India pipeline through Afghanistan will be realized.

"Preparations are under way for the imminent signing of an agreement on the sale and purchase of natural gas," Nedirov told an international investment forum last week.

The 1,700-km (1,056-mile) TAPI pipeline proposes annual supplies of 33 billion cubic metres (bcm) of Turkmen gas. 

The project was first conceived in the mid-1990s, but has never moved forward.

An intergovernmental agreement signed in December contained no specific provisions for security, volumes or gas prices. Funding and security hurdles also loom large.

Turkmenistan envisages the pipeline would be supplied by its South Iolotan field, regarded as the second largest in the world containing between 13.1 trillion and 21.2 trillion cubic metres of natural gas.