Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, April 17 / Trend H.Hasanov /
Management of the Central Bank (CB) of Turkmenistan announced at a recent government meeting that it would "put forward proposals on the allocation of credit by the Central Bank at the expense of available funds in foreign currency to implement construction of East-West gas pipeline," an official Turkmen source said on Monday.
The longest communication line in the country is scheduled to be operational by mid-2015. Approximate cost of the project is more than $2 billion with foreign companies being attracted for contract works.
It was reported recently that the builders of the main gas pipeline with total length of 766 kilometres, which runs from the largest gas fields in the east towards the Caspian Sea have lain the first 40 kilometres.
The project envisages construction of eight linear compressor stations, setting up a Tele-mechanisation system and automation of the pipeline's management, cathodic protection, engineering communication, related facilities and road crossings.
The East-West new gas pipeline with a capacity of 30 billion cubic meters of gas per year is required to ensure operational manoeuvre by the flow of gas exports, as well as to improve the reliability of domestic gas supply.
It was previously reported that the laying of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline toward Azerbaijan to supply to Europe may be the next step while considering another variant, the implementation of the Caspian gas pipeline project to Russia.