Afghanistan announces 30 year gas agreement from TAPI natural gas pipeline

Afghanistan has announced it has signed a 30 year gas sales and purchase agreement for the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) natural gas pipeline.

Last week, relevant parties to the planned multilateral natural gas pipeline met in Ashgabat. Shortly afterwards, the Afghan Foreign Affairs Ministry announced it signed a 30 year deal with the Turkmen government for the pipeline.

Initially, Afghanistan will receive 17.6 billion ft³/yr of natural gas during the first 10 years of the natural gas pipeline's operation. In the following decades, the country’s allocation from the pipeline would increase gradually to 52 billion ft³/yr.

According to local media sources, the pipeline would generate US$ 500 million in sales income per year for the Afghan government.

It has been reported that Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP, BG Group, RWE, Petronas and other companies have expressed intentions to participate in the project.

The design capacity of TAPI is 33 billion m³/yr of natural gas. The estimated length is 1735 km. It is expected that the pipeline will extend from the largest gas field in Turkmenistan, Galkhynysh, through the Afghan cities of Herat and Kandahar to the Fazilka settlement on the Pakistani-Indian border.

The TAPI natural gas pipeline is seen as a rival to a similar project planned from Iran.

Edited from various sources by Cecilia Rehn.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/business-news/16072013/afghanistan_announces_30_year_natural_gas_agreement_from_tapi_natural_gas_pipeline_393/