Maksat Babayev, state minister of Turkmenistan and head of TurkmenGaz, and minister of state for petroleum of Pakistan Musaddiq Malik signed the TAPI Joint Implementation plan on Thursday.
The plan was signed in Islamabad at an event attended by Pakistan’s Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif.
“TAPI gas pipeline project would usher in an era of regional cooperation, this will help the region to secure natural gas with concrete assurances and mutually agreed terms and conditions,” said Sharif during the signing ceremony of the TAPI Joint Implementation Plan.
He also said in a tweet that the signing of the TAPI Joint Implementation Plan between the two countries marks a step forward for the execution of the project.
“The TAPI project is vital to meeting our energy needs. Pakistan wants the project to be implemented at its fastest speed. In view of costlier fuel prices and gas shortages globally, we are exploring all options to procure all forms of energy on a sustainable basis as part of a comprehensive national energy security plan,” Sharif tweeted.
Sherif said that the completion of the TAPI project will be a game-changer for the region in terms of enhanced economic cooperation.
The Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas project aims to transport natural gas from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India via an 1814-kilometer-long pipeline.
Around 33 billion cubic meters of natural gas would be transported through the pipeline annually.
