Page 4 - AsianOil Week 02 2023

AsianOil COMMENTARY AsianOil

Turkmenistan: Mister

Berdimuhamedov goes

to Beijing

Turkmenistan has been pushing for some time to expand gas supplies to

China, already its biggest market

TURKMENISTAN TURKMENISTAN’S president opened 2023 One is for a continued, or hastened even,
with a tribute mission to China. commitment to completion of a fourth strand, a
WHAT: As Serdar Berdimuhamedov noted before so-called Line D, to the Turkmenistan-China gas
Turkmen President his departure from Ashgabat, his state visit car- pipeline. In 2021, 34 bcm of gas were sent from
Serdar Berdimukamedov ried important symbolic value since it fell on Turkmenistan to China, which lends some idea
began the year with a trip the exact 31st anniversary of the establishment of what the existing infrastructure can manage.
to Beijing. of diplomatic relations between Turkmenistan (Fully 43.2 bcm of gas were delivered through
and China. the Turkmenistan-China pipeline in 2022,
WHY: After a six-and-a-half-hour flight to Beijing although that also includes unspecified volumes
Turkmenistan wants to on January 5, Berdimuhamedov was driven in from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan).
boost gas sales to China, a motorcade to the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, Line D would add around 30 bcm of capac-
given its lack of other where North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was ity. And in another important detail, while the
export options. put up in 2018. existing route runs through Uzbekistan and
The lodestar of the Sino-Turkmen relation- Kazakhstan, the fourth pipeline will run across
WHAT NEXT: ship at present is the joint declaration on the Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan before
Turkmenistan will vie for establishment of a strategic partnership signed arriving in China’s troubled Xinjiang province.
market share in China in September 2013. The stated mutual objective Well, Berdimuhamedov came away with a
with Russia. of dialogue is to take “traditional cooperation to win on this front. In a joint statement with his
a qualitatively new level that fully meets the pri- Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, the leaders
orities of socio-economic development and the committed to “accelerate … construction of Line
national interests of each of the parties.” D of the Turkmenistan-China gas pipeline and
Such language is intended to convey the other major joint projects so as to intensify coop-
impression that the relationship extends – or will eration in the gas industry.” Another pledge was
extend in future at any rate – to matters beyond that the partners will speed up the second stage
energy trade, although that is indisputably the of development of Galkynysh, the Turkmen gas
only area of major importance to both partners. mega-field from where all this fuel is supposed
As Berdimuhamedov revealed in an article to come. The Turkmens formally operate Galk-
published in the state daily, Turkmenistan has ynysh, although this is a convenient piece of
to date supplied China with more than 350bn fiction to create the impression Ashgabat can
cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas. The fuel was run things independently, when in reality the
delivered through the Turkmenistan-China gas cash and technology predominantly come from
pipeline, which started operating in late 2009. Beijing.
“The gas pipeline has become an example of Russia may be looking upon all this with
political responsibility, economic realism, and some degree of satisfaction.
the far-sighted approach of the leadership of the In early February 2022, a few weeks before
two countries in solving global energy develop- he would embark on his disastrous invasion of
ment issues,” Berdimuhamedov wrote, before Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin paid
praising Beijing for creating “international a visit to China. During that visit, Russia’s Gaz-
mechanisms for the reliable protection and secu- prom and China’s CNPC signed a 25-year deal
rity of energy supplies.” for the supply of 10 bcm of gas per year from
These remarks are more than honeyed obser- Russia’s Far East to China via the Power of Sibe-
vations of fact. They imply petitions on two ria pipeline. Other projected future deals envi-
important priorities for Turkmenistan. sion gas being pumped through a yet-to-be-built

P4 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 02 13•January•2023