-
TAPI project gets special concessions
The caretaker government of Pakistan is said to have exempted Turkmenistan Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) Gas Pipeline project from the Open Access Regime, OGRA Gas (Third Party Access) Rules 2018 and the Pakistan Gas Network Code, besides standard waiver of immunity in line with international precedents to be included in the Host Government Agreement (HGA), sources close to Secretary Petroleum told Business Recorder.
These special concessions were approved by the Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCoE) headed by caretaker Minister for Power and Petroleum, Muhammad Ali last week of last month but its minutes were approved by the caretaker Minister three weeks after the meeting by incorporating desired changes. Sharing the details, sources said, Petroleum Division briefed the CCoE about the TAPI project.
It was stated that TAPI Gas Pipeline project was aimed to bring natural gas from the Galkynysh and adjacent gas fields in Turkmenistan to Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.
In order to strengthen the common understanding made by the TAPI parties and further to implement the project, Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) and Gas pipeline Framework Agreement (GPFA) were signed on December 11, 2010.
The GPFA had provided certain protections and facilitation to the project company for the execution, implementation and operation of the pipeline for the life of the project. Moreover, given that TAPI was a trans-national pipeline project, Government of Pakistan (GoP) had agreed, under the GPFA, to adopt and implement uniform legal and regulatory framework for the project.
As per the GPFA, Afghanistan and Pakistan are required to execute Host Government Agreements (HGA) with TAPI pipeline company Limited (TPCL), the project company. The Heads of Terms of the Host Government Agreement were signed between the GoP and TPCL on March 12, 2019.
Share This
