Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, November 17 / Trend, H. Hasanov /
Turkmenistan has intensified efforts to enhance the capacity of the gas export pipeline system that allows transporting natural fuel to Russia, Amanaly Khanaliyev, Chairman of State Concern Turkmengaz, told an international oil and gas conference on Thursday.
"On the eve of the 20th anniversary of its independence, Turkmenistan has launched the second section of a bypass pipeline linking gas field Dovletabat to gas-compressor station Deryalyk. The combined throughput capacity of both sections of gas pipeline Dovletabat-Deryalyk reaches to 150 million cubic meters of gas per day," he said.
He noted that another gas-compressor station - with the annual capacity of up to 20 billion cubic meters - has been put into operation at the biggest gas field Dovletabat. With its up-to-date equipment, this booster compressor station meets the highest international standards. It is fully automated and autonomous.
There is also launched the second line of the Bagaj gas processing plant with the annual production capacity of one billion cubic meters of gas, and also specialized in production of gas condensate and liquid hydrocarbon gases.
The new facility comprising several dozens of units with modern equipment wholly meets the international requirements. All technological processes - gas amine cleaning, gas phase-to-phase dehumidification and cooling, gas pumping, etc. - are automated and managed by centralized computer software.
Russian joint-stock company Gazprom was the key buyer of Turkmen gas before gas pipeline Turkmenistan-China was put into operation in 2009. Considerable export - some 50 billion cubic meters of gas per year - of Turkmen gas to Russia had been suspended in April 2009 because of an incident within the pipeline's extent and restarted only in the early 2010.
However, the annual gas export to Russia decreased substantially - to 10 billion cubic meters - after the pipeline Central Asia-Center was put into effect due to the global crisis.
Before that, the Russian gas giant bought fuel from Central Asia and then resold it to Europe with a great profit, in an effort not to spend money for expensive development of Russia's northern gas fields.
Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov is scheduled to visit Russia before the end of the year.