MONITORING REPORT ISB: Pakistan would be in a position in coming years to overcome its gas shortfall as the work on four-nation mega gas pipeline project has started in Shatlyk, Turkmenistan. These four nations included Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-
Turkmen President Berdymukhammedov along with leaders of these four nations including Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif witnessed the beginning of work on the Asia pipeline called TAPI.
“Today we were participants and witnesses of a historic event. Today marks the start of a project of great scale — the TAPI pipeline,” said Berdymukhamedov at the ceremony, held in a pavilion imitating a traditional Turkmen nomadic dwelling.
“TAPI is designed to become a new effective step towards the formation of the modern architecture of global energy security, a powerful driver of economic and social stability in the Asian region,” Berdymukhamedov said.
Turkmenistan has earlier said it expects the gas link with an annual capacity of 33 billion cubic metres to be fully operational by the end of 2018. However, uncertainty hangs over the project, whose cost is estimated at $10 billion.
Aside from the risks associated with a link traversing war-torn Afghanistan, the four-country consortium has yet to confirm the participation of a major foreign commercial partner willing to help finance TAPI.
The next phase of development at Galkynysh — the second largest natural gas field in the world — will be overseen by a consortium of Japanese and Turkish companies in addition to Turkmenistan, Berdymukhamedov said.