Accord on TAPI transaction advisory services soon

KABUL and India — would be signed in a couple of days, a report said on Tuesday.

The accord would be inked at a two-day meeting, slated for Nov. 20-21 in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan’s capital, The News International reported. Representatives of all stakeholders will attend the meeting.

According to the Pakistani newspaper, the deal will enable the Asian Development Bank as transaction advisor to find a technically and financially sound company that could form a consortium to generate finances for the $7.8 billion TAPI gas pipeline.

Under the agreement, the Manila-based bank will charge a fee of $50,000 per month, with each country paying more than $12,000 monthly. The gas pipeline line will provide 500 million standard cubic feet (mscf) per day of gas to Afghanistan and 1.325 billion cubic feet (bcf) each to Pakistan and India.

“Afghanistan was earlier interested in the transit fee only but it later signed the GSPA with Turkmenistan in July 2012 for 500 mmcf of gas per day. All the stakeholders have agreed in principle on the contours broadly and once the TASA is signed, financial and technical issues would be resolved with ADB as advisor,”one official told The News.

It added the consortium leader will pay $30 million to the transaction advisor the day it assumes responsibility. The Gas Pipeline Framework Agreement (GPFA) was signed on December 11, 2010.

PAN Monitor/mud

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