Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, Dec.20 / Trend H. Hasanov /
China transported up to 3.97 billion cubic meters of natural gas, commissioned in December 2009, from Turkmenistan through the trans-national gas pipeline by mid-December 2010, reveals a report on Monday by the Department of Immigration and Quarantine Control of the Khorgos checkpoint of the Xinjiang Uygur of the Autonomous Region in Northwest China. The pipeline, stretching 1,833 km, originates on the Turkmen-Uzbek border, passes through the center of Uzbekistan, through the southern part of Kazakhstan, and reaches to the Chinese border in Khorgos.
The CNPC implemented the project which allowed Turkmenistan to expand the market - previously limited to Iran and Russia's supplies. According to an official Turkmen source, the Turkmen President, Gurbanguly Berdimuhammadov touched upon the issue of supply in the direction of the Chinese market at a recent governmental meeting.
"Remember, only three or four years ago, the idea of building a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to China seemed to many as an unrealizable wish, and, to be honest, a few people believed in this project," he said.
"And recently the 'unrealizable dream' found its real embodiment as the sum of the collective efforts of four states - Turkmenistan, China, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Today Turkmenistan's natural gas delivers heat and light to the Chinese people," the Turkmen leader added.
The China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) plans to import 13 billion cubic meters of natural gas from the right bank of the Amu Darya in Turkmenistan in 2011. Recently preliminary work was conducted on the new pipeline for two weeks. In line with the envisaged schedule, work was also carried out at a gas processing plant (GPP) located on the right bank of Amu Darya from mid-October.
The CNPC operates in Turkmenistan on the basis of an exclusive agreement to develop the onshore field, Bagtyyarlyk in the Lebap region. The Turkmen government concludes all other PSAs with foreign companies only for offshore blocks in the Caspian Sea.
The CNPC recently announced the discovery of a large gas field in the Amu Darya, potentially a resource with more than 100 billion cubic meters of fuel.