Turkmen gas starts flowing to China

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Turkmen gas starts flowing to China

Tuesday, 15 Dec, 2009

SAMANDEPE: China’s President Hu Jintao on Monday unveiled a landmark pipeline to transport Turkmen natural gas to China, a key victory for Beijing in its drive for access to Central Asian resources.

Hu, together with the presidents of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, turned a symbolic wheel at a refinery in Samandepe in Turkmenistan’s vast Karakum desert which opened the pipeline to start the first gas flowing.

‘China is positive about our cooperation and the opening of this gas pipeline is another platform for collaboration and cooperation between our friendly nations,’ Hu told reporters.

The 7,000 kilometre (4,350 mile) gas pipeline is a significant victory for Beijing, and it effectively ends decades of Russian dominance over the export of Central Asia’s strategic energy supplies.

It first runs for 1,800 kilometres in Central Asia snaking through Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan before linking up with a further 5,000-plus kilometres of pipeline in China’s far-west Xinjiang region.

The China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) will eventually import up to 40 billion cubic metres of gas a year through the pipeline when it reaches full capacity in 2012-2013.

Central Asia, a vast resource-rich region wedged between Afghanistan, China Russia and Iran, has been dominated by Moscow since the Kremlin began aggressively expanding its imperial borders in the 19th century.—AFP