Vice-Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan Batyr Amanov spoke about the progress in the implementation of the project for the construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) transnational gas pipeline at the plenary session of the International Forum on attracting foreign investment in the energy sector of Turkmenistan, which opened on Wednesday in Paris.

“At the moment, preparations for operation of the linear part of the pipeline on the Turkmen section of the transnational gas pipeline Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India are being completed and intensive preparations are underway for the start of construction on the Afghan segment,” Batyr Amanov noted.

The Vice-Chairman also focused on the ongoing work to increase the production capacity of the Galkynysh field, which is intended to become a raw material base for ensuring natural gas supplies through the TAPI pipeline.

“It is worth noting that the Galkynysh field, which occupies one of the leading places in the world in terms of energy reserves, is of great political and economic importance for our country.  To expand the possibilities of supplying Turkmen natural gas to international markets, the phased development of this field continues,” the Vice-Chairman said.

In particular, the third stage of development of the Galkynysh field will become the resource base for the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project with a capacity of 33 billion cubic meters per year.

In his speech, Batyr Amanov also noted that Turkmenistan attaches great importance to trade and economic cooperation with all interested parties.

“We intend to actively attract foreign investment and advanced technologies to implement large-scale economic tasks. In this regard, I would like to note the key vectors for the development of the oil and gas industry in the near future and the important projects planned for implementation,” Amanov said.

Among them, the Vice-Chairman named the completion of the construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline, attracting foreign investment for the development of promising areas of the Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea (blocks 11, 12, 16, 21, 23, 24), implementation of large production projects  , expanding the scale of deep processing of hydrocarbon resources, exchanging experience with leading foreign companies on the introduction of digital technologies, carrying out seismic and geological exploration work.