Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, June 13
By Huseyn Hasanov - Trend:
In 2019, China plans to begin construction of the fourth "D" branch of the Kyrgyz section of the Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-Tajikistan-Kyrgyzstan-China gas pipeline, the "Turkmengas" State Concern said in a statement referring to the statement of the Chairman of the State Committee for Industry, Energy and Subsoil Use of Kyrgyzstan Ulanbek Ryskulov.
It is expected that the project will be implemented at the expense of Chinese funds, and the commissioning of the fourth branch is planned for 2021.
"The agreement itself provides for a 35-year period of operation of the gas pipeline, during which Kyrgyzstan will receive $2.5 billion of profit in the form of a special tax. The capacity of the gas pipeline is 30 billion cubic meters," said Ryskulov.
The length of the Kyrgyz part of the gas pipeline will be 224 kilometers: the pipeline starts from the "Karamyk" checkpoint on the border with Tajikistan and ends near the "Irkeshtam" point on the border with China.
The construction of the Tajik section of the fourth branch of the gas pipeline started at the beginning of this year, in the laying of which a subsidiary of the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) is engaged.
The pipeline corridor will be laid from the Tajikistan’s Tursunzoda district through the Hisor, Shahrinaw, Rudaki, Vahdat, Faizobod, Nurobod, Rasht districts and Tojikobod and Jirgatol to the border of Kyrgyzstan. The length of the corridor is more than 400 kilometers, and it is planned to put the pipeline corridor into operation at the end of 2019.
Currently, three pipeline branches along the Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-Kazakhstan-China route (branches "A", "B", and "C") have been built and are in operation, and they are designed for the supply of 40 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year in total.
In May 2018, it was reported that since the end of 2009, China has purchased 204 billion cubic meters of Turkmen gas along this route and became its largest importer. The Turkmen fields Bagtyyarlyk and Galkynysh are the sources of this raw material.
The agreement on the construction of the fourth "D" branch of Turkmenistan-China gas pipeline through Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan was signed following the talks between President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov and President of China Xi Jinping in September 2013.
It was reported then that, the capacity of the additional branch will be 25 billion cubic meters of gas. In 2021, the volume of Turkmen natural gas supplied to China annually can be increased to 65 billion cubic meters according to the plans.
