The Afghan Minister of Mines and Petroleum, Shahabuddin Delawar, met with Muhammetmyrat Amanov, General Director of TAPI Pipeline Company Ltd (TPCL), to discuss accelerating the process of starting the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project.
The consortium consists of Turkmengaz State Concern (85% stake), Afghan Gas Corporation, Pakistan's Inter State Gas Systems (Private) Limited and India's GAIL.
ToloNews quoted ministry spokesman Humayun Afghan as saying: "Both parties emphasized the facilitation of the TAPI project". Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman of the Islamic Emirate, said: “Afghanistan has provided the security where the TAPI project is supposed to be implemented and we have complete readiness. We hope that the TAPI project will be started but you know that this is not only the subject of one country, other countries are also engaged with it and they all should be ready.”
Construction of the pipeline, which will have an annual capacity of 33bn cubic metres of gas, began in December 2015. During this period, the Turkmen side laid a linear pipeline to the Afghan border and developed the source of the raw material - the super-giant Galkynysh field.
The TAPI pipeline on Afghan territory, which is more than 800km long, is to pass through the provinces of Herat, Farah, Nimroz, Helmand and Kandahar.
Experts told Daryo that the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which had lobbied for the project, has closed its office in Kabul pending international recognition of the Islamic Emirate. Security is another pressing issue. Taliban field commanders promise to raise 30,000 fighters to protect the TAPI infrastructure.
Eziz Boyarov
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