What Turkmenistan president’s visit to Gulf means for TAPI pipeline project
BISHKEK (TCA) — Turkmenistan is pushing the implementation of the Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India (TAPI) gas pipeline project, which, if completed, will diversify the country’s gas exports. The project’s funding, however, remains a serious impediment to its implementation. We are republishing this article on the issue by Rauf Mammadov, originally published by The Jamestown Foundation: Turkmenistan’s President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov visited the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait in mid-March as part of a campaign to revive a long-stalled natural gas pipeline from his country to Pakistan and India (Neftegaz.ru, March 16). The visit occurred three weeks after a February 23 groundbreaking ceremony marking the latest effort to put the Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India (TAPI) pipeline back on track. The ceremony, held on the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan border to initiate the second stage of the pipeline—which will run through Afghanistan—was a high-profile affair. In attendance were Berdimuhamedov, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaquan Abbasi and India’s Minister of State for External Affairs Mobashar Jawed Akbar (RBK, February 23). The event was another milestone for the project, first conceived 20 years ago. Turkmenistan had finished its section of the pipeline in 2017, thanks to financing from the Saudi Fund for Development (Trend, January 30). Although the start of the second segment has raised hopes the pipeline will be completed by 2019, a number of crosswinds buffet the project. Not least of these is opposition from Russia, which sees TAPI as a threat to its attempts to maintain a stranglehold on oil and gas in the region. Although Turkmenistan has the world’s sixth-largest gas reserves, it is using only one of its three existing export pipelines at the moment—sending 30 bcm per year to China (Eia.gov, accessed March 28). It has stopped shipping gas through a pipeline to Russia over a price disagreement and through a pipeline to Iran over a payments dispute (Vedomosti, August 13, 2017). Because natural gas exports account for most of Turkmenistan’s revenue, it desperately needs to diversify its customer base, and TAPI would play a key role in that. If completed, the $10 billion pipeline will deliver 33 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas per year from Turkmenistan’s Galkynish field, the world’s second-largest, to energy-hungry Pakistan and India. It will run along the Kandahar–Herat highway, in Afghanistan, to Quetta and Multan, in Pakistan, and on to Fazilka, India (Adb.org, accessed March 28). The pipeline will pass through Afghanistan’s Herat Province, which the Taliban controls. However, the Taliban has pledged to support the pipeline’s construction, provided no companies or development agencies from the United States are involved (Lenta.ru, March 5). Turkmenistan’s state-owned Turkmengaz is the leader of the consortium that will operate TAPI, with 85 percent ownership. ISGS of Pakistan, Afghan Gas Enterprise, and India’s GAIL will each have a 5 percent stake. The Asian Development Bank, which has been involved in TAPI since its inception in the mid-1990s, is the project’s key financial advisor. On November 8, 2017, the Islamic Development Bank agreed to loan Turkmenistan $700 million to complete its section of TAPI....
