TAPI gas pipeline agreement to be signed soon

Federal Minister Syed Naveed Qamar will sign the agreement along with his counterpart ministers on September 20, 2010.

ISLAMABAD: The Gas Pipeline Framework Agreement (GPFA) of Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline is expected to be signed by representatives of the participating countries in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan on September 20, 2010.

The Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Syed Naveed Qamar will sign the agreement along with his counterpart ministers from Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and India.

TAPI gas pipeline project has been planned to bring natural gas from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to Pakistan and India.

The Heads of State of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan signed Inter Governmental Agreement (IGA) for joint oil and gas pipeline projects between the three countries in 2002. India joined the project in 2008 and a revised GPFA was initialed for the induction of India, thus changing the project from TAP to TAPI.

The ADB sponsored pre-feasibility study, conducted in 2004, indicated that the 1680 km pipeline project was economically and financially viable and estimated cost was US$ 3.3 billion (revised to US$ 7.6 billion in 2008). The pipeline would be designed to carry 3.2 BCFD gas from Turkmenistan, delivering 0.5 BCFD to Afghanistan and 1.35 BCFD each to Pakistan and India. Pakistan would be able to produce 6000 MW electricity using 1.35 BCFD gas.

This would be a landmark achievement as the project had seen no progress since 2008.

President Asif Ali Zardari during a telephonic discussion with Turkmen president Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov reactivated this important project. Zardari directed Naveed Qamar to expedite concluding various agreements with the target of finalizing Gas Sales Purchase Agreement by the end of this year or early next year.

After the signing of GPFA in Ashgabad next week, the parties are planning to convene rigorous rounds of negotiations so as to finalize the Gas Sales Purchase Agreement during a proposed TAPI summit in Ashgabad. The renewed attention to this project from the present government would lead to significantly improving energy availability for Pakistan and help resolve the energy crisis.