Bangladesh is keen to join the four nation TAPI gas pipeline project. The $7.6 Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline will source gas from Turkmenistan.
“There was a request from Bangladesh to join the project. We require official note for this which will be considered by all the four governments of TAPI project,” Kakageldy Abdullaev, Turkmenistan’s Acting Minister of Oil & Gas Industry and Mineral Resources told reporters at the Petrotech 2012 Conference here.
The TAPI project envisages building 1,680 km of pipeline, with a total gas capacity of 90 million standard cubic metres per day (mscmd). Afghanistan and Pakistan have committed to the safety and security of the pipeline. The pipeline length would be increased if the project is extended to Bangladesh.
Of the 90 mscmd gas the pipeline would carry from Turkmenistan, Afghanistan would consume 14 mscmd, while India and Pakistan would account for 38 mscmd each. GAIL would import Turkmenistan gas for India, once the pipeline becomes operational in 2018. The gas would be supplied for a 30-year period.
The Minister said roadshows to attract firms who would build the project were recently held in New York, London and Singapore and there was “substantial interest” from institutional investors.
He said Gas Sale and Purchase Agreements (GSPA) for sale of gas have already been signed with Pakistan and India and the entire process of selection of the consortium leader and finding the investors is expected to take one year. The construction of the pipeline is expected to start in 2015.