Kazakhstan: Workers Complete Section of Turkmenistan-China Pipeline

The Kazakh part of the Turkmenistan-China pipeline is complete. The pipeline will pump up to 5 billion cubic meters (bcm) of Turkmen gas to China in 2010. In 2013 it will carry 30 bcm of gas eastwards, Asia Gas, the joint Kazakh-Chinese company set up to oversee the project, said in a press release on July 10.

Uzbekistan's stretch of pipeline will be finished by December 2009, according to Uzbek media reports on July 10. On June 2, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said Turkmenistan would supply China with 40 bcm annually. In February 2008 Ashgabat awarded the construction contract for the 188-kilometer Turkmen segment of the pipeline to the Russian firm Stroytransgaz, of which the Kremlin-controlled conglomerate Gazprom is a major stakeholder.

In Uzbekistan, China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau, China Petroleum Engineering and Construction Corporation, and Zeromax, a company alleged to have close links to the ruling Karimov family, are building the pipeline.