China transports gas from Turkmenistan

The China National Petroleum Corporation says a gas processing plant for the Turkmenistan Amu Darya project began producing natural gas on November 22nd. This means the start of transporting natural gas to northwest China through the Central Asia Pipeline which will be put into operation next month.

The CNPC says the project can supply China with five billion cubic meters of natural gas next year and that can be expanded to 13 billion cubic meters by 2011. The company says it will also purchase 17 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year from Turkmenistan in the next 30 years to make full use of the Central Asia Pipeline. Sources say the pipeline is expected to ease a gas shortage due to cold weather in China.