May 24 likely to be final meeting for TAPI pipeline project: Petroleum minister

Petroleum minister congratulates Pakistan and India on successful negotiations.

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Dr Asim Hussain, during a conference, said that Pakistan reached another milestone in the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline project, adding that May 24 will most probably be the final meeting for the project, Express News reported.

He also congratulated India and Pakistan in this regard.

“We played the major role in it,” he claimed, saying that they had convinced, negotiated and hosted talks.

Earlier, Pakistan, India and Afghanistan had agreed on the rate of transit fee on supply of gas from Turkmenistan through a transnational pipeline, popularly known as Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline.

This was the last major stumbling block before reaching a final agreement on the pipeline as Pakistan and India had already negotiated a gas price with Turkmenistan.

Under the proposed arrangement, Pakistan will pay a transit fee of 50 cents per million cubic feet of gas per day (mmcfd) to Afghanistan and the same amount will be paid by India to Pakistan. A final agreement on the fee will be signed after Afghanistan, India and Pakistan get consent from their governments.

In early February, Afghan and Pakistani officials had discussed three different proposals for the transit fee which included fee in cash or kind, a fixed fee in dollars on the volume of gas supplied or fee linked with per kilometre length of the pipeline.