TURKMENISTAN - Turkmenistan has borrowed $700 million from the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) to finance the construction of a gas pipeline through Afghanistan to Pakistan and India (TAPI). The $10 billion TAPI pipeline, originating at the giant Galkynysh gas field in Turkmenistan, would carry 33 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas a year. Turkmenistan, which sits on the world’s fourth-largest gas reserves, last December, started building its section of the pipeline, designed to ease its dependence on Russia and China, but the three other countries have yet to begin work.