Page 10 - AsiaElec Week 42 2022

AsiaElec GAS GENERATION AsiaElec

Turkmenistan discusses

ambitions to double gas

exports to China

CHINA TURKMENISTAN is again referring to appar- mid-September cooperation in energy and other
ent plans to approximately double its natural gas areas on the sidelines of the 22nd meeting of the
exports to China, which would mean increasing Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Coop-
supplies to around 65bn cubic metres (bcm) eration Organization (SCO).
annually, Turkmen news site Orient.tm has President Xi Jinping highlighted that “the
reported. sides are interested in increasing the scale of
The ambitions were discussed after Turkmen- cooperation between the countries in the areas of
istan and China agreed to develop the second natural gas [production] and non-commodities”.
stage of the Galkynysh gas field. No time-scale Turkmen president added that “the current
on the plans has been provided. Turkmen-Chinese partnership has seen devel-
Turkmenistan supplied 34 bcm of gas to opment in such strategic areas as trade, energy
China in 2021, making it the largest supplier of complex and transport - namely cross-border
gas to the Chinese market. cargo transport - as well as in the areas of culture
Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, former and education.”
president and present speaker of the Turkmen China has extended its economic footprint
parliament’s upper chamber, disclosed in early in Turkmenistan in recent years, and it is now
October that Turkmenistan was trying to boost strongly involved in the Central Asian country’s
its natural gas exports to China. natural gas industry. Chinese firms are heav-
“Today, we are working on increasing the ily involved in Turkmenistan’s petroleum and
supply of Turkmen natural gas considering energy complex.
Chinese economy’s growing demand and Turk- The Galkynysh gas deposit said to be one of
menistan’s resources. We are ready to discuss in the largest in the world with a potential storage
detail the possibility of building a fourth pipeline capacity of more than 27mn cubic meters. China
route from Turkmenistan to China,” Berdimu- receives gas from the Galkynysh field through
hamedov was reported by local media as saying the Central Asia-China pipeline. The pipeline is
on October 3. planned to transport 40bn cubic meters of gas
Turkmen President Serdar Berdimuhamedov per year, with a maximum capacity of 55bn cubic
and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed in meters.™

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 42 19•October•2022