Pipeliners

30 August 2007 - Upstream OnLine - Construction has begun on a 7000 kilometre- (4350 mile-) pipeline that will take Turkmenistan's gas to China by 2009, bypassing the country's traditional export market of Russia, Turkmen media reported today. The pipeline, with an annual capacity of 30 billion cubic metres, will start in the east of the country on the right bank of the Amu Darya river and pass through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. "This is a culminating moment, the president of Turkmenistan Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov blesses the beginning of the Turkmen-China gas pipeline," Reuters reported Turkmenistan's state news agency as saying. Turkmenistan and China agreed a 30-year production-sharing deal in July when Berdymukhamedov visited Beijing. However it is still unclear whether transit countries Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan - which will have 530 kilometres and 1300 kilometres of the pipeline respectively - have agreed to the plan. Earlier this month Kyrgyzstan asked Beijing if it could route the pipeline via its territory but nothing was agreed. But Chinese officials attending the event in the Turkmen capital of Ashgabad seemed sure of the project. "This is the first transnational project to go to China and the transit countries' governments gave us huge backing for its construction," Chen Demin, China's National Development and Reform Commission's vice director, told Turkmen television. Since coming to power in February, Berdymukhamedov has tried to implement alternative routes for Turkmenistan's gas, putting pressure on Russia, which buys virtually all its exported gas. Turkmenistan is the largest seller of gas in central Asia, and exports 50 Bcm a year to other central Asian countries through Russia using Soviet era pipelines. A small amount of gas also goes to neighbouring Iran. Turkmenistan is due to soon have talks with Russia over new gas prices, making the new export market of China even more attractive. Turkmenistan's Bagtyyarlyk area has gas reserves of 1.3 trillion cubic metres, Turkmen press reported. Only 188 kilometres of the pipeline will be built on Turkmen territory and 4500 kilometres in China. "With the participation of our Chinese partners, we have now started full-scale work on the... gas pipeline, which is the most important economical asset for the two countries and their people," Berdymukhamedov was quoted as saying in the state newspaper "Neutral Turkmenistan".