A high level delegation from Turkmenistan recently visited Pakistan and called on Federal Minister for Energy Omar Ayub Khan in Islamabad to discuss the way forward of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) project. The Turkmen delegation comprised Muhammetmyrat Amanov, chairman Board of Directors of TAPI Pipeline Company, Ambassador of Turkmenistan Atadjan Movlamov and Batyr Berdiyev, manager TPCL (Pakistan Branch). The Turkmen delegation highlighted the significant progress achieved on the financing and procurement of the multibillion dollar pipeline and stressed its determination to conclude the financial closure of the project in early 2020.
The beginning of construction work on the project in Pakistan is expected in the next month. The TAPI Company has short-listed some companies including prominent European companies for building the pipeline. The TAPI Company is working on the TAPI gas pipeline project. Groundbreaking of the project has taken place in Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. Work on the pipeline is underway in Turkmenistan and civil works on some points have also been started in Afghanistan.
Turkmenistan arranged some funds from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB). Some of the financing will be arranged by the foreign firms on the supplier credit basis
