Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 16 / Trend A.Badalova /
Turkmenistan will continue to pursue other gas export options to balance the growing dependence on China, Senior Energy Analyst at the Centre for Global Energy Studies, Julian Lee believes.
According to Lee, China could, conceivably, consume all of the gas that Turkmenistan is able to export, but Turkmenistan is unlikely to be comfortable with that situation.
"It /Turkmenistan/ courted China as a customer in order to balance the over-reliance on Russia. Having done so, I do not believe that it would be willing to become completely dependent on China either," Lee wrote Trend via e-mail on Monday.
Last week Chinese President Xi Jinping completed his visit to Central Asia. During the visit Xi Jinping signed a number of agreements on the construction of Turkmenistan-China gas pipeline, in particular with Ashgabat.
The Chinese president also participated in inauguration of the strategically important Galkynysh gas field in Turkmenistan.
This field will be the main source of gas which will go from Turkmenistan to China.
China has recently become a key consumer of Turkmen gas and counts for increasing the annual purchases to 65 billion cubic meters of gas.
Turkmenistan is one of the key players in the gas market in Caspian region and Central Asia. At this stage, users of Turkmen natural fuel are China, Iran and Russia.
Turkmenistan holds the fourth place in the world for the reserves of natural gas and the country searches new markets in Europe and South Asia.
According to BP, Turkmenistan's proved gas reserves amounted to 17.5 trillion cubic metres in early 2013.
In 2012 gas production in the country increased by 7.8 percent to 64.4billion cubic meters.