The news outlet Business Recorder, with reference to a source in Pakistan’s Petroleum Division, reported on 4 September that Turkmenistan and Pakistan agreed to conclude the financial closure of Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project in early 2020.
According to the source, the TAPI construction was on the agenda of a recent meeting held between a high-level delegation from Turkmenistan and Pakistan’s Minister for Energy Omar Ayub Khan in Islamabad.
The Turkmen delegation comprised Muhammetmyrat Amanov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of TAPI Pipeline Company, Ambassador of Turkmenistan to Pakistan Atadjan Movlamov and Batyr Berdiyev, TPCL manager (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.
Project-related construction works in Pakistan are scheduled to be launched next month.
Business Recorder also highlights that Turkmenistan received some funding from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) for the TAPI project implementation. Some of the financing will be arranged by well-known European companies.
Let us recall that during the International Gas Congress held in May 2018 in Turkmenistan Mukhammetmyrat Amanov reported that “Turkmenistan is close to concluding the financial closure of the pipeline construction”.
For instance, the official said that “the funding will be successfully completed in the third quarter of 2018 within the next three to four months”. For this the company was holding negotiations with some credit agencies, including the Italian SACE, French Hermes and Greek ECIO.
In the meantime, at the Turkmenistan-Singapore business forum, held in late August, which was designed to attract investments into Turkmenistan, the TAPI project was presented to Singapore.
Turkmenistan’s officials assured that the construction of the gas pipeline has “a huge potential” and was supported by “international partners and major financial institutions”.