Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, July 31 / Trend H. Hasanov /
Turkmenistan and China discussed further expansion of cooperation in the fuel-energy sector during intergovernmental talks in Beijing, the Turkmen government said today.
In particular, the issues of increasing the volumes of Turkmen gas supplies to China to 65 billion cubic meters a year were discussed.
Ashgabat is represented by Baymurad Hojamuhammedov, the country's deputy prime minister, who is responsible for the Turkmen oil and gas, chemical and fishery complex.
The second session of the Turkmen-Chinese Intergovernmental Cooperation Committee was held in Beijing. Deputy Prime Minister of the Chinese State Council Wang Qishan headed the Chinese side. He stressed the great importance attached by the government and Chinese people to increasing comprehensive cooperation with dynamically developing Turkmenistan.
Turkmenistan is China's major gas supplier in Central Asia. The pipeline was commissioned through Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan in December 2009. The project was China's first energy corridor designed to import foreign natural gas.
The design capacity of the Central-Asian gas pipeline is 30 billion cubic meters. It was built by CNPC. This allowed Turkmenistan to expand its sales markets limited by the supplies to Russia and Iran.
A framework agreement on cooperation to transport an additional amount of natural gas from Turkmenistan to China was signed between the state concern Turkmengaz and the China National Petroleum Corporation in Beijing in early June.
According to the document, the volume of Turkmen natural gas delivered to China each year will reach up to 65 billion cubic meters.
According to experts from both countries, the volume of Turkmen natural gas delivered to China will reach 30 billion cubic meters from early 2010 to July 1, 2012. This figure will rise up to 44 billion cubic meters by late 2012.
The results of the recent talks were discussed at the government meeting. The Turkmen leader stressed that there are huge prospects in energy cooperation given China's growing need for the Turkmen stable supply of natural gas reserves and rich resources. Turkmenistan has been steadily implementing a strategy to diversify export routes of energy to the world markets.
The Turkmen leader said that a multi-faceted inter-state dialogue with China in this field corresponds to the economic interests of the two friendly countries and acts as an essential factor in strengthening peace, stability and sustainable socio-economic development at a regional level and globally.