Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Sept. 2
By Huseyn Hasanov - Trend:
Turkmenistan has become an important partner of China in gas cooperation, deputy general director of the Chinese company PetroChina, Lu Gongxun said in an interview with Xinhua news agency.
Gongxun said the annual volume of natural gas supplied to China by Turkmenistan will rise from 40 billion cubic meters (bcm) to 65 bcm in 2021 under an agreement signed by the Chinese President Xi Jinping during his visit to Turkmenistan in 2013.
He added that with the deepening of strategic partnership between China and Turkmenistan, their gas cooperation will be further strengthened and become an inexhaustible impetus for improving inter-state relations.
"Turkmenistan's rich gas resources facilitate the implementation of China's goal of diversifying energy imports. The natural gas imports from the Central Asia play an indispensable role in ensuring the state energy security of China," the Chinese businessman said.
Currently, the Turkmen natural gas is being delivered to 500 million Chinese in different regions of China through several pipelines.
Lu Gongxun has for many years worked in Turkmenistan, and believes that the cooperation between China and Turkmenistan in the gas industry has a strategic, long-term and far-sighted character, and fully reflects the high level of political trust between the two countries and its complementary, win-win nature.
Turkmenistan is rich in energy resources, China has a huge market, and the two countries have great economic complementarity and determination to cooperate.
It is estimated that Turkmenistan ranks first in Central Asia and the fourth in the world in terms of the volume of mined natural gas.