Kyrgyzstan, China sign agreement on gas pipeline from Turkmenistan

Kyrgyzstan and China have signed an agreement on the construction of a gas pipeline running from Turkmenistan to China, via Kyrgyzstan.

President Almazbek Atambayev announced, “An agreement on the construction of a gas pipeline worth US$ 2 billion was signed with China.”

In September 2013, it was reported that President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, who was in Ashgabat on an official visit, came to an agreement on the fourth direction of the transnational Turkmenistan-China gas pipeline along the Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-Tajikistan-Kyrgyzstan-China route.

In 2009 the Turkmenistan-China gas pipeline was commissioned. Upon completion, the pipeline is expected to increase the amount of Turkmen gas delivered to China by approximately 40 billion m³/yr.

Ashgabat and Beijing have recently agreed on the supplies of an additional 25 billion m³/yr of Turkmen gas, which would bring the total volume up to 65 billion m³.

Turkmenistan is one of the main players in the energy market in the resource-rich Caspian region. The Central Asian state has the world’s fourth largest natural gas reserves after Russia, Iran and Qatar, and produces about 70 - 80 billion m³/yr of gas.

Edited from various sources by Hannah Priestley-Eaton

Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/business-news/23122013/kyrgyzstan_chinasign_agreement_on_gas_pipeline_from_turkmenistan/