Turkmenistan launches Iran pipeline

Turkmenistan, Central Asia's largest gas producer, has opened a new pipeline that will more than double its gas sales to Iran.

Together with a pipeline to China launched last month, the new link will enable Turkmenistan to ship more gas to Iran and China than to Russia's Gazprom, which has dominated the region's market for decades.

Before this opening, Turkmenistan operated a smaller pipeline to Iran with a capacity of 8-billion cubic meters a year.

Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov, right, and his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, left, seen during the inauguration ceremony for a new natural gas pipeline at its gauging station in the southeastern Sarahs district near the Iranian border, Turkmenistan, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2010. (AP Photo)