Last week, in the Ministry of Oil-Gas Industry and Mineral Resources of Turkmenistan, in the frames of the 22nd meeting of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India Gas Pipeline Project Steering Committee, “Turkmengaz” State Concern was unanimously elected the leader of “TAPI Ltd.” Consortium. Thus, the participants of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India Transnational Gas Pipeline construction project have come close to the startup of the pipeline construction, for the entire preliminary work on the project is substantially completed. In particular, the Turkmen natural gas purchase contracts were concluded; technical and economic feasibility study of the project was updated and completed; an Agreement with the Transactional Advisor (Asian Development Bank) was signed; and “TAPI Ltd.” Consortium was created. After electing the “Turkmengaz” State Concern as the consortium’s leader, in the short term, the Counterparts will dovetail the Shareholders’ Agreement in which the duties of Board of Directors’ members will be specified. Construction is scheduled to start before the end of the current year, and a resource base at the initial stage of the project is to be the largest gas field “Galkynysh”. As the leader of consortium, the “Turkmengaz” State Concern will manage interaction in the issues of cooperation, funding, possession, and operation of the TAPI pipeline. The “Turkmengaz” State Concern has over 50 years of experience in the exploitation, production and transportation of gas and pipeline construction, and within recent years, this experience has gained international level. It is envisaged that other core enterprises will join the group of consortium’s leader at the project’s subsequent stages. Turkmen gas will help to cover the growing requirements for the “blue fuel” in India and Pakistan, where the needs for gas can be doubled by 2030. In addition, it will reduce the chronic deficit of energy in the transit Afghanistan. Bangladesh has also signified its interest to the project. After the implementation of the TAPI project, India will get its first transnational pipeline. Currently, the country buys the liquefied gas and transports it by tankers. The beginning of the TAPI transnational gas pipeline construction project practical implementation was laid in Ashgabat in December 2010 in the course of the “Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India” Summit. President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymuhamedov, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari and Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas of the Republic of India Murli Deora took part in the Summit. In the framework of the high-level meeting it was noted that the economic feasibility of the project confirms the generally-recognized (by the reputable international experts inclusive) fact of grandiose natural gas reserves availability in the bowels of the Turkmen land. It allows our country to secure long-term supplies of “blue fuel” in any direction, including via the TAPI route. At the “Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India” Summit, the heads of state-participants of the project, primarily on Afghanistan’s part, furnished a security of the transnational gas pipeline, and signed the appropriate Intergovernmental Agreement. According to technical and economic feasibility study, the 1,800-kilometer TAPI Gas Pipeline will originate in the southeast of Turkmenistan – the region notable for its large gas fields, run via the territory of Afghanistan and Pakistan to reach Fazilka settlement (India) on the Pakistan-India border. Long-term annual deliveries of 33 BCM of the Turkmen natural gas will be carried out via the gas pipeline.