A huge £5.8 billion gas pipeline spanning four countries across 1,118 miles is one of the biggest gas transit projects in its region.
Called a “regional game changer”, the TAPI project is a joint venture between Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.
The pipeline will transport 33,000 cubic metres of natural gas annually between the four countries. The pipeline will be 1,420 mm (56 inches) in diameter with a working pressure of 100 atm.
It will provide clean and affordable energy for millions of people and decrease the importation of natural gas from foreign countries, including Russia, Iran and China.
Starting from the Mary region of Turkmenistan, the pipeline will cover a total distance of 133 miles up to Afghanistan. The Afghanistan section will be built along the highway.
It will run through Kandhar and Herat Highway in Afghanistan, for a length of 481 miles. It will cover 513 miles in Pakistan, across the cities of Quetta and Multan, before finally ending in Fazilka at the Indo-Pakistan border in Punjab region, India.
The project began in 2016 with an initial budget of £153 million but this has now soared to a massive £5.8 billion.
The pipeline was intended to be operational by 2019, but there is currently no completion date set in stone.
Afghanistan, which has been dependent on imported energy, will get 500 million cubic metres of natural gas in the first decade of its completion.
This will increase to one billion and 1.5 billion cubic metres in the second and third decades.
The investment agreement for the development of the TAPI project was signed by the four countries in February 2016. Türkmengaz is the leading partner of the project.
A ceremony marking the beginning of construction of the Afghanistan-Pakistan section of the pipeline was held in February 2018.
The plan for the TAPI project was originally conceived in the 1990s to generate revenue from Turkmenistan’s gas reserves by exporting natural gas via Afghanistan to Pakistan and India.
