Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, July 18 / Trend H. Hasanov /
The international gas pipeline Korpeje-Gurtguyy (Turkmenistan-Iran) commissioned in 1995 during the years of independence played an important role in the growth of the economic power of the country, the Turkmen Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources said today.
About 2.850 billion cubic meters of fuel have been transported through this gas pipeline to the neighboring Islamic Republic of Iran within six months.
"The achieved result exceeds the similar index of 2011 by more than 215 million cubic meters," the information said.
Korpeje-Gurtguyy gas pipeline beginning from the western deposits of the country was commissioned in December 1995. Its capacity has been brought up to eight billion cubic meters a year. There is potential to increase pipeline capacity to 14 billion cubic meters.
Two neighboring countries have commissioned additional capacity since late December 2009. The gas pipeline Dovletabad-Sarahs with a capacity up to six billion cubic meters a year was built from the east of Turkmenistan to the border of Iran. The branch from Sarakhs to the settlement Sangbast via Hangeran in Iran was opened in November 2010. There is potential for increasing the capacity of the gas pipeline by twice.
The Iranian National Gas Export Company is a buyer of Turkmen gas.
Turkmenistan and Iran have been recently negotiating to increase energy supplies. The two countries implement major regional projects in the field of transport. At this stage, major rail project "North-South" is being implemented. Kazakhstan is also involved in this process. The ground work is being carried out with financial support from the Asian Development Bank and Islamic Development Bank.