Afghanistan will get $1 billion a year for transit through the TAPI gas pipeline

Ashgabat, August 27 - Neftegaz.RU. Pakistani Foreign Minister Mahmood Qureshi said implementation of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline (TAPI) was beneficial for the entire region, with Afghanistan alone to get $1 billion as transit fee and royalty.

Talking to the media following his meeting with Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, the foreign minister said the project was expected to create 2,000 new employment avenues with immense opportunities.
Qureshi added:

• In near future, the convening of a meeting of foreign ministers from neighbouring states was under consideration to discuss the Afghan situation
• Pakistan and Turkmenistan would continue collaboration with special representatives from both sides to hold meetings on strengthening ties

The foreign minister mentioned that the TAPI project was discussed in detail with the Turkmen president, wherein he reiterated Pakistan’s commitment to enhance economic connect through various projects including TAPI.

TAPI has long been hailed as a monumentally important project, solving not just Turkmenistan’s limited customer problem, but more importantly, bringing much-needed energy resources to South Asia – if it can ever be built.

The TAPI pipeline was 1^st proposed over 30 years ago in a 1995 MoU between Turkmenistan and Pakistan.
The 1,814-km TAPI pipeline is expected to supply about 33 billion m3 of gas and is projected to run from the Galkynysh gas field in Turkmenistan to India, passing through Herat and Kandahar in Afghanistan, to Pakistan.

The state company of Turkemenistan, Turkmengas, is the main contributor to the project, responsible for financing $8.5 billion of the $10 billion costs as well as managing the TAPI pipeline.

*The Taliban is a terrorist organization banned in Russia

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