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TAPI gas pipeline launch postponed for one year

The 1.735-kilometer gas pipeline will run from Turkmenistan to India via Afghanistan and Pakistan

MOSCOW, December 1. /TASS/. Commissioning of the TAPI (Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline, also known as Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) gas pipeline will be postponed from 2017 to 2018, Pakistan’s Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Mohammad Ishaq Dar told TASS on Monday.

“The year 2017 is a very aggressive term. It might better be 2018 or around it. The most important thing for us is to complete this project,” he said.

The 1.735-kilometer gas pipeline will run from Turkmenistan to India via Afghanistan and Pakistan. The pipeline’s designed capacity is 33 billion cubic meters of gas per year. Investments are estimated at around $8 billion. Initially, the launch of the project was planned for 2017.

“The project is being realized with the help of the Asian Bank of Development and has a big potential. The pipeline’s target markets are countries with a population of three billion people,” the minister said.