01-07-08 The construction of the Uzbekistan-China gas pipeline for the Turkmen gas transit has begun near the village of Sayet in Dzhondor district in Uzbekistan's Bukhara region, an Uzbekneftegaz manager told.
The project is operated by Asia Trans Gas, a joint venture set up by Uzbekneftegaz and the Chinese National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) for design, construction and operation of the Uzbekistan-China gas pipeline.

The project involves the construction of two branches of the main gas pipeline. As per the working schedule, the first branch and the KS1 compressor station are due to be completed before December 31, 2009. These facilities are expected to be commissioned in January 2010.
The second pipeline branch and two compressor stations, KS2 and KS3, are scheduled for completion and commissioning before December 31, 2011. The project implementation will be supervised by Uzbekneftegaz and China's Trans-Asia Gas Pipeline Co.

In April 2007 Uzbekistan and China signed an intergovernmental agreement, "On the principles of construction and operation of the Uzbekistan-China gas pipeline for the Turkmen gas transit." The project is part of the construction of the Turkmenistan-China gas pipeline linking the two countries via Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
The length of the Uzbekistan-China gas pipeline will be 530 km and its estimated capacity will be 30 bn cm of natural gas per year. There are no plans to export Uzbek gas through this gas pipeline.

Currently, the total length of Uzbekistan's main gas pipelines is more than 13,000 km. Uzbekneftegaz is Uzbekistan's oil and gas monopoly founded in 1998 and includes six joint-stock companies.
Uzbekistan is the second largest CIS natural gas producer and is one of the ten biggest gas producers in the world. Each year the country produces about 60 bn cm of natural gas, part of which is exported.